Aflame
Chapter 18
The epitome of stupidity
Never had there been a more silent room in the entirety of the multiverse.
Never had a situation been so tense yet so close to disaster.
Never had it been so quiet, that if one listened closely, they could hear other people's heartbeats. No place in all of Earthni's (relatively) short history could share that description.
Until, of course, right now. And this historical moment took place at none other than the bedroom of one Janna Ordania.
"Marco?" Angie asked, her voice sounding like thunder in the silent room. "Honey, are you still there? Listen, please don't freak out, I need you-"
"I'm coming home." Marco said, his fingers tightening around the phone.
"Marco-"
"I'm coming home." He repeated, and he ended the call. Putting on a face that was devoid of emotion, he threw the phone at Janna and headed for the door.
"Marco, wait!" Eclipsa said. "We still have to-"
Marco stopped in his tracks and turned around to give her a death glare.
"Don't try and stop me." He said, wearing a sneer that looked like he had spent several hours perfecting it. "If something happened to my dad, just like I was suspecting all this time, then I have to know. I'm going home, my mom is going to tell me what happened, and I don't care what you have to say about it."
"If you wanted to know, she probably would have just told you while you were the phone." Janna said, closing the demon book and setting it aside.
Marco paused for a moment and thought that over. After a few seconds of careful contemplation, he realized that Janna was right. He shouldn't have hung up like that. But at the same time, he didn't care who was right and who was wrong in this situation. He just needed to get home. He responded with a scoff and shoved Janna's door open before leaving.
The two people left in the room silently contemplated what their next move would be. For Janna, she knew that this might blow over and or it might not. Either way, she didn't want any part in what happened next. She had a feeling that it was going to end badly. But that wasn't what Eclipsa was thinking. She wasn't going to stand by whole Marco did something rash and get himself killed again. She had to do something.
"I'm going to go get him." She told Janna. "Judging by the look on your face, I assume you're staying here?"
"Yeah." Janna said, confused because she hadn't changed her expression in the last ten minutes. "Good luck. If you need me at that meeting tomorrow, I'll be there. But I think I'm going to relax as best I can until that hospital leave you gave me wears out. I don't even know why they still want me back. I think it's obvious at this point that I'm fully capable of getting around without hurting myself."
Eclipsa nodded. "I'll see if I can get you a longer one. I'll call you later about the meeting." With that, she left and Janna was now alone, standing in silence. She sighed, put the book back under her bed, tossed her crutches aside and flopped onto a beanbag chair she had recently bought. She grabbed her laptop from a nearby stool and opened it up.
"Now, let's see what I can do to get that desk attendant fired…."
Downstairs…
Marco nearly leaped down the stairs as he made a beeline for Janna's front door, not caring whether he injured himself or not. He reached the door and flung it open as hard as he could, almost ripping it off its hinges in the process. Stepping outside, he slammed the door behind him and made his way towards the sidewalk, determined to let nothing stop him from getting home.
This feeling did not last however, as he heard the door open again from behind him. He didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. The sound of the door being gently closed rang in his ears and he slowed his pace.
"Don't try and stop me Eclipsa." He growled, getting to the end of the Ordania's walkway and moving into the sidewalk. "I'm not going to."
"That's not why I followed you." Eclipsa said, who was now walking behind him. "I'm not going to stop you from going home, but I will stop you if you start making rash or stupid decisions. You're too consumed by anger and anxiety right now Marco. I'm sure your father is fine, so please just-"
"Oh, is that so?" Marco yelled. "Because the tone my mom was using was a pretty clear indication that he wasn't! And I'm not going to make any stupid decisions. I'm thinking clearly. I'm fine." He claimed, his left eye twitching. "I'm okay. Even if it doesn't look like it."
"You're not thinking clearly, and you're not okay." Eclipsa said. "If you were, you wouldn't have just stormed out of the house like that and nearly broken the Ordania's door in the process. You're not you right now. You're not acting like the Marco I know."
"Are you suggesting-"
"No, I don't think you're possessed again." Eclipsa said. "But this is behavior is completely inconsiderate of you. I know how hard today has been. I've been reminded of it several times. But if you let the days event control you, then it might happen all over again."
"This will never happen again…" Marco muttered.
"What did you say?" Eclipsa asked. "I didn't hear-"
"This will never happen again." Marco repeated. "Today was just the result of one bad thing happening after the other. All of it because of that fire-god."
"Yes!" Eclipsa exclaimed. "And if you act like this, if you make yourself vulnerable, then it will come back and take ahold of you again!"
"It won't!"
"How can you be so sure?" Eclipsa asked, quickening her pace to catch up with him.
"Because he told me himself! He literally said he wouldn't take control of me again!" Marco screamed, before realizing his mistake. He clasped a hand over his mouth, but it was already too late. The secret was out. He shut his eyes and braced himself for the pain that was sure to come. What was about to happen? Would a bolt of lightning would strike him? Would he spontaneously combust? Maybe even get a random heart attack? He didn't know, but what he did know was that it was over. He let his arms fall to his side and his body tensed up, preparing itself for the end.
Nothing happened.
So he opened his eyes and waited a few moments more.
And still nothing happened.
"What the hell?" He mumbled, confused as to why he was still alive. "Shouldn't I be dead by now? Or at least suffering some kind of consequences?"
Before any of these questions could be answered, he saw a shadow fall over him. He turned around and saw Eclipsa standing there, a look in her eyes that held compassion.
"Normally, yes." She said. "But I don't think what you just said was enough for them to strike you down."
"What are you-"
"Marco, I know you had a meeting with the fire-god after you died. I know you two talked and he brought you back afterwards. And I know that you were under orders to never tell anyone about what happened there." Eclipsa put a hand on his shoulder, one of reassurance. "And I'm sure that for you to be struck down on the spot, you might have to be a little more descriptive than that."
Despite Eclipsa's attempt to calm him down, Marco still winced, expecting her to blow up at him a moment later. But she didn't. She stood there, her hand still on his shoulder, letting him know that she held no animosity towards him for not telling her the truth.
"I understand." Eclipsa said. "You were afraid. I don't blame you at all for lying. I'm not angry at you because of it. In fact, I'm grateful. If you had told the truth, then we would all be dead now, wouldn't we?" She chuckled. "I know it's not something to laugh at, but I don't want you to think you're in any kind of trouble. Any reasonable person would have done the same Marco."
Marco took all this in and then looked at the ground, his eyes darting to the side in shame. "I should have told the truth." He said. "I should tell you everything it told me. There was so much stuff that could be useful, so much that we could-"
"Please don't." Eclipsa pleaded. "You know you can't do that. I'd die, and then you'd die again. And I'm sure that when you meet the fire god for the second time, he won't be happy to see you."
Marco shuddered, thinking of all the torture that at the god had inflicted on him back in his nightmare at the beach. He suddenly got a vision of the nightmare happening again…and again…and again forever. An endless cycle of torture that only ended when the universe burned itself out. He wasn't sure if this vision was being put into his head by the fire god right now, or if it was all him.
And he didn't want to know the answer to that.
"Okay." He said. "It did tell me to just try and forget it. Forget all of it."
"Then that's what you should do." Eclipsa recommended. "Don't think about the conversation you had, don't talk about it, not even to yourself, and especially don't write down what happened. If some unfortunate person found that piece of paper, what do you think would happen?"
"They'd die." Marco said, already knowing the answer.
"That's right." Eclipsa said. "Try and forget about it Marco. There are some things that just shouldn't be remembered."
Marco nodded, and Eclipsa saw that she had gotten through. She took her hand off his shoulder and looked him in the eye.
"Do you want me to drive you home?" She asked. "It's quite a walk from here to your house".
"Yeah." Marco breathed, finally accepting some help. "That'd be nice."
"Then go wait by my car, because I have to go fetch my keys. I believe I left them inside, since I was in kind of a rush to get out of there."
Eclipsa then turned around and walked back towards the Ordania's house, with Marco following her in tow. He shuffled over to her car, opened the passenger side door and climbed in, while Eclipsa headed back inside and went up the stairs to Janna's room.
She pushed open the door and saw Janna sitting on her bean bag chair, typing furiously on her computer. She hardly even looked up at Eclipsa, and grabbed a pile of freshly written notes that were by her side. She scanned them with all the speed of a giant demon attacking a town, then set them back down and kept typing.
Eclipsa decided that whatever Janna was doing, it would be best not to interrupt. She spotted her keys on a nearby dresser and grabbed them, wondering why she had even taken them out of her pocket in the first place. Although it was Janna, so it was entirely possible that she had swiped them earlier.
Before these thoughts could escalate further, Eclipsa shoved the keys in her pocket and left, honestly not caring why she had taken them out or why they were sitting on the dresser. She took the stairs two at a time and entered the foyer. Janna's parents were still unperturbed in any way by her presence, something which Eclipsa found both fascinating and unsettling.
Unwilling to stay in the creep house any longer, she quickly exited and gently shut the door behind her. She speed-walked to her car and pulled open the driver's side door, where she saw Marco in the seat opposite to her, looking even more morose than usual.
"Are you okay?" She asked, immediately taking note of his demeanor. "You look down. Did something happen in the five seconds that it took me to grab my keys?"
"No." Marco answered. "I'm just still worried about my dad. About what Bren might have done with him."
"Bren didn't do anything." Eclipsa said. "He was busy...dealing with you when your father disappeared."
"You mean murdering me?" Marco said, rolling his eyes. "And no, he wasn't. My dad disappeared after Star's speech, which was hours before I fought him. He had plenty of time to do something with my dad and then kill me."
"Did he tell you anything himself?" Eclipsa asked. "About your father?"
"Back at the sanctuary, I accused him of kidnapping him." Marco said, leaning his head against the car window. "But he denied it, and of course I didn't believe him."
"I still don't think he had anything to do with what's going on. We don't know what's actually going on. You hung up on Angie before she could tell you."
"It doesn't matter. If something bad happened to him, then Bren obviously-"
"Where's my dad? Did Bren really take him or is it something else?"
"Bren did not take your father. He told you this himself, if I remember correctly. He was in no way directly responsible for his disappearance."
"Thank god…"
Marco suddenly stopped dead, a sudden flashback of a previous conversation playing in his head like a video on loop. But it didn't feel like a flashback. It felt more comparable to a memory that had forced its way into his mind, almost like a tumor that was eating his brain from the inside. The loop started to go faster and became hellishly distorted, and it brought with it an explosion of pain that felt like his skull was trying to force its way out of his head.
"I…" He stuttered, any form of coherence slowly failing. "I...stop…"
"Stop?" Eclipsa asked, unaware as to what was going on. "Stop wha-" She said this the exact second she turned to her right and glanced over at Marco, his skin deathly pale and his nose bleeding like he was having an aneurysm.
"Oh my god! Marco!" She yelled, instantly freaking out and grabbing him by the shoulders. "What's happening? Can you hear me?"
"N...no…ple...ase...Help...me…" He whimpered, his head feeling like it was going to explode. Both of his nostrils started pouring blood like a waterfall, and Eclipsa decided that enough was enough. She reared her hand back and slapped him, knowing that he was under some kind of beguilement. Slapping someone always seemed to work with these kind of things.
The second she did this however, Marco gasped and start hyperventilating like he was having a panic attack. Eclipsa started getting terrified for him as she realized that her slap only made it worse.
Then he screamed.
It was a primal, Earthni-shattering scream so loud that Eclipsa almost covered her ears in response. It was one of terror, fear, and pain. Eclipsa wouldn't have been surprised if half the town was hearing this. It was one of the worst sounds she ever heard, and it alone made her wonder if she should even continue helping Marco, lest the same thing that was happening to him pass on to her.
"GET OUT!" He screeched, finally managing to form some words. "GET OUT! YOU PROMISED! YOUR SAID YOU WOULDN'T...wouldn't…"
Marco then start screaming incomprehensibly again and fumbled with his seatbelt, unbuckling it in an instant. He threw open the car door and attempted to run, but the seatbelt caught his ankle and yanked his feet out from under him. He twisted around and tried to grab the door, but it was too late, and he fell flat on his back as his head hit the driveway with a loud CRACK.
And then all went quiet.
No more screaming. No more hyperventilating. Even his nose seemed to have stopped it's bleeding. He lay there on the ground, unconscious.
Eclipsa was so shocked she could barely even move for a few seconds. She had no idea what had just happened or if Marco was even still-
"GET OUT!" Marco yelled, shooting up without warning. Eclipsa nearly hit her head on the car ceiling from shock as Marco jumped up and looked around him frantically, like a person who had just escaped a serial killer. Once he spotted Eclipsa, his breathing slowed somewhat but still remained at a pace that sounded like he had finished a marathon.
"Did you hear that?" He asked her, his eyes darting all over the place. "Did you hear it?"
"What? I...no." Eclipsa said, having difficulty finding the right words. "But what happened there? Are you okay?"
Marco rubbed the back of his head and struggled to remember. His face then went deadpan and his posture sank as the memories came flooding back all at once.
"I was wrong." He said, wiping his blood soaked nose with his sleeve. "Bren didn't do anything with my father."
"Wait, but a minute ago you were sure that-"
"Not anymore." He said, climbing back into the car. He sat down, put his seatbelt on again and closed the car door like nothing had happened.
"M-Marco?" Eclipsa said, genuinely shook up inside. "Are you okay?" She repeated. "I need you to tell me what happened to you there."
"What did happen to me?" Marco asked, still devoid of emotion.
"You...started stuttering something." Eclipsa answered. "Then you got a nosebleed, I slapped you to knock you out of it-"
"You what?"
"I-I couldn't think of anything else to do in the moment." Eclipsa said, answering truthfully. "But then you started hyperventilating and screaming like your soul was being ripped out of your body."
"That's what it sure felt like." Marco said. "That or my entire skeleton being doused in gasoline and then set on fire. All the while somebody was speaking to me, trying to tell me things that I should have figured out from the beginning."
"Err...right." Eclipsa agreed. "So after that, you tried to run out of the car, but the seatbelt hooked around your ankle, you hit your head on the ground annnnnd...you knocked yourself out."
"Is that why the back of my head hurts?" Marco asked. "Because it feels like someone hit it with a hammer."
Eclipsa sighed and paused for a moment, unsure as to where she should take this next. Marco clearly still wasn't in his right mind, judging by how Eclipsa felt like
she was talking to a robot. And after all he had been through today, whatever that screaming session had been was just another thing to add to the ever expanding list of Marco's tortures. If would be in everyone's best interest to just leave it alone and not interfere, for fear of making it worse.
But then again, it's not like she could ignore it. That would be even more foolish than doing nothing, and she had to get as much out of him about this experience as she could.
"What did you hear?" She asked. "You said someone was trying to tell you things that-"
"I don't care. You shouldn't either. Now Take. Me. Home." Marco demanded, curling up into a fetal position on his seat.
"But-"
"Please." He breathed, sounding like he was a second away from crying.
Eclipsa gulped and decided that she should do as he asked. Whatever this was could wait for later when he was feeling better. She had half a mind to exempt him from the meeting tomorrow or to just call it off entirely, as she felt like it would take more than a good night's sleep for Marco to recover from today.
She nodded in response and turned the car on, and it came to life. She rolled out of the Ordania's driveway and started heading down the road to the Diazes house, while Marco sat quietly, looking like he could just wish it all away.
'Poor Marco.' Eclipsa thought, keeping a careful eye on him. 'At this point, I'm wondering how he's even still sane. If what Star told me is correct, he had already been through hell on Earth even before he died. Then he talked to the fire god and discussed who knows what, and now whatever that was is just adding to it all! Alright. No meeting for him tomorrow. Or maybe even for the rest of the week. If one more bad thing happens to him, then he might snap. If only his parents were here. Maybe they could-'
Wait.
Parents.
Eclipsa began swearing furiously under her breath as she realized that there was literally another bad thing waiting for Marco back home. Whatever happened to his father. Even in the state he was in now, Marco would no doubt want to know where Rafael was. And judging by Angie's tone that Eclipsa heard, it was nowhere good.
'Okay, new plan.' She thought. 'I rush in as inconspicuous as possible before Marco and quickly tell Angie that Marco can't speak and that she needs to tell him to relax and that she'll tell him about Rafael later. No matter what, he cannot know. He's already too mentally vulnerable at the moment. He needs something to help him calm down.'
Eclipsa took a deep breath, feeling the urge to ram her head into the steering wheel an indiscriminate number of times. Maybe she needed something to relax too.
'Alright. That's what's happening. Don't let him learn about whatever happened to Rafael. If he does, then we might as well be digging his grave or wor-'
"I know what you're thinking, and you don't have to worry." Marco said out of nowhere. "I know how close I am to going insane here. Trust me, whatever happened to my dad, it can wait until later. I know that much."
Eclipsa glanced over at him and stared in shock, wondering for a moment if he had become a mindreader.
"How...how did you-'
"What the hell else would you be thinking about?" Marco asked rhetorically. "It's easy to see how worried you are about me, and while I appreciate whatever plan you're thinking up, I don't need it. I'm going to go straight up to my room and sleep this whole stupid day off."
"..."
"Plus, you were swearing about it a second ago like a lunatic. Got kind of loud." Marco added.
Eclipsa clenched her teeth, and exhaled. "Are you sure?' She asked. "Marco, you have to-"
"Do nothing." Marco said. "I don't have to do anything else for the rest of the day. That's my reward for enduring it all."
Eclipsa couldn't argue with that. He was right. He didn't have to do anything else. After all, he hadn't been in control of his own body for the better part of the day.
"So, anything else you want to add?" Marco asked. "Or are we both gonna shut up now and enjoy the silence while we still can?"
"Umm…" Eclipsa hummed, questioning whether to tell him or not. "I decided that you don't have to go to the meeting tomorrow?"
Marco perked up. "Really? I guess that's nice. Well, then don't expect me to do anything tomorrow either. Maybe I'll go to the hospital and hang out with Star."
As he said this, Eclipsa took another look at him. For a single moment, she thought she almost see a smile forming on the edge of his lips.
Almost.
Eclipsa shifted he eyes back to the front and focused on driving. If Marco already had a plan that would benefit him, then she wouldn't stop it.
And he really needed some time to think when it was just him in his head.
5 painfully silent minutes later…
"Marco, we're almost there." Eclipsa said, turning a corner that led to the Diazes street.
"Mm." Marco said, and did nothing more. Eclipsa looked at him worried for the millionth time and wished that this could have been prevented for the 101,283 time. These two things were all that had occupied her thoughts for the last five minutes, and it was slowly starting to consume her soul. In the meantime, Marco had gotten even more silent, and even his breathing seemed muffled in a way. It was a bad sign. But Eclipsa knew that talking to him would only make it worse, she had to let it run its course.
Pulling up to the Diazes house, Eclipsa parked in front of it and got out. Marco followed suit while Eclipsa locked her car, and the two entered the house with Marco in front. The second the front door swung open however, Angie came rushing towards them with a piece of paper in her hand.
"Marco!" She exclaimed, someone talking in a frenzy despite only having said one word "Thank god you're home. After you hung up, I was worried you didn't want to listen to me, or that something else happened-"
"Uh uh uh uh uh." Marco said, putting his hand up. "Whatever it is, it can wait. And...something did happen." He walked right past her and went up the stairs, heading up to his room. Before he reached the top, he turned around and called out one last thing.
"By the way, if I dont come back downstairs in a few hours, that means i've killed myself because I had another torture dream. If that happens, tell Star I'm sorry." He said this in a completely monochromatic tone, devoid of any signs of humanity. He then disappeared from sight and left behind a concerned Angie, while Eclipsa was left feeling sorry for him.
"What was that about?" Angie asked, turning towards Eclipsa. "I thought the whole reason he rushed home was to learn about what happened to Rafael. What happened in the ten minutes between that call ending and you getting here?"
"Something horrible." Eclipsa said. "Is there somewhere I can sit down? I need a moment."
"I guess so, sure." Angie said, pointing to the living room. "The couch is in there, unless you want to-"
"The couch is just fine." Eclipsa interjected. She walked into the living room and sat herself done on the end of the couch, leaning back as far as she could. She thought about all the Queen duties she had missed during the hours she had spent at that hospital. Hopefully Globgor had taken care of a few of them. She would spend a few minutes here to calm herself down, and then go back to the monster temple. There she had her loving family waiting for her. No more doctors, no more fire-gods, and no more depressed Marco.
Eclipsa paused and almost slapped herself for that. 'No more depressed Marco.' She thought. 'It almost sounds like a bad joke. Oh Marco, I'm so sorry. But all this is getting to me as well. I'm not even sure if there's anything I can do for you. At this point, Star is probably the only one who could cheer him up. I'll recommend to Angie that she have him visit her every day until she's discharged.'
'...'
'Oh, who am I kidding? He'll do that anyways…"
"So, do you want something to drink?" Angie asked, snapping Eclipsa out of her thoughts. She looked to her left and saw Angie standing there, waiting patiently by the television set. Had she been watching her the entire time?
"Just the most caffeinated drink you have." Eclipsa requested. "And then double it. Twice, if you can."
"That bad?" Angie said, setting the piece of paper aside. "Alright, I'll see what we have. But after that, I'd like you to tell me what happened to Marco."
"You won't like it…"
"A lot of things happened today that I didn't like." Angie said. "But that doesn't mean I wanted to remain ignorant about them."
Angie then walked into the kitchen and Eclipsa heard the sound of a coffee maker starting. 'Regular coffee.' Eclipsa thought. 'Better than nothing I suppose. I'd pray that it kicks in quickly, but I'm pretty sure that the only god is the vicinity isn't on my side.'
"What happened to Rafael?" Eclipsa asked, wanting to shift the conversation from her mind into real life. "Is he alright?"
"No…" Angie said. "Do you know that Mina Loveberry's followers broke out of prison?"
"Yes, actually." Eclipsa said. "I saw it on the news and...oh no." A spark of realization came across her. "Did they-"
"I found this on the front doorstep." Angie said, coming back into the room. She grabbed the note from earlier and handed it to Eclipsa, who read it over as slowly as possible.
Hello.
We are the followers of Mina Loverberry.
We have kidnapped your husband, and we will keep him hostage unless you comply to our demands. We demand that all monsters be executed publicly in the town square, that all monster-loving traitor Mewmans be forced out of town, and that the tyrant Queen Eclipsa be killed via beheading, along with the rest of her disgusting family. If these demands are not met, then your husband will suffer a similar fate as our leader did.
Sincerely, the Monster-hating society.
(MHS)
Eclipsa gazed foggily at the letter once she was finished, clearly unimpressed.
"Just like I suspected." She sighed. "They're unoriginal. This is pretty much what they did earlier with Meteora and Mariposa. Now that Mina's gone, they didn't know what to do, so they resorted to kidnapping somebody again. It's so copy and paste that it's actually quite pathetic."
"Pathetic?" Angie asked, a hint of anger in her voice. "They have my husband! They might kill him! They-"
"...will be dealt with." Eclipsa said. "And possibly not even by us. Angie, do you know why Mina died?"
Angie hesitated for a brief moment before answering. "...Marco mentioned something to me this morning about how Bren killed her because she was a nuisance." She said. "That he wanted revenge all to himself."
"That's about it." Eclipsa said. "I don't think he'll be too happy to see them out of prison. If we don't stop them, he will. Probably by killing them all with Tom."
"And what about Rafael?" Angie asked. "What is Bren going to do with him?"
Eclipsa winced. "If I'm being perfectly honest, he might-"
"Save him." A sudden voice said, making Angie and Eclipsa turn towards the stairs. Marco was there, leaning on the banister, having heard the whole conversation. Apparently taking a nap hadn't worked out so well.
"He's going to get my dad back from them." He continued, making his way down the rest of the stairs. "I just remembered something he said. About how I would never see my dad again without him. About how there was somebody who wasn't patient about getting his revenge. Whatever happened to my dad, I'm sure that Bren is already fixing it and murdering Mina's followers."
Neither Angie nor Eclipsa moved for a few seconds. Angie was shocked that Marco was so confident in his claim that the same person who killed him would save his father. Eclipsa was shocked that Marco was still awake and able to form coherent sentences with actual emotion. And Marco went right back upstairs after he said this, having heard and said what he needed to.
"Wait! Marco!" Eclipsa said, but he was already upstairs, and the next thing she heard was his bedroom door closing. Too late. Too late to do anything.
She groaned and clenched the pillows, wishing she had a stress ball. Although in all likelihood, she would have just given it to Marco, who would have then squeezed it so hard that it would pop.
"Great, now I'm even more confused." Angie said. "So should we listen to my son and just wait for Bren to "save" Rafael? Because I don't know how comfortable I am placing the life of my husband in the hands of that psychopat-"
"I'm not either." Eclipsa said. "But if I'm being honest, Bren has the best chance at saving him than any of us. He used to be Mina's informant. He knows where they're hiding out. He knows everyone in it. He knows everything."
"Everything or not, I still don't like it." Angie said, crossing her arms. She then sat down in a nearby chair. "But what's your plan for dealing with this?"
"My plan?" Eclipsa coughed. "It's...well, you see, right now I don't really have much of a-"
"Hold on." Angie said. "Don't tell me your whole plan for taking care of them is to just let Bren do all the work? Marco told me he hates us and wants us all dead! He might kill Rafael if he finds him!"
"Please calm down." Eclipsa said, dragging a hand across her face. Letting Bren take care of things wasn't her plan, but she hadn't had the proper amount of time to think of a good one. "Shouting isn't going to accomplish anything. It'll just make things worse."
"Maybe so, but I want to get my point across." Angie said. "We have to do something about this by ourselves. We can't sit around and hope that someone else does it the exact way we want to."
Eclipsa stared at her. In all honesty, that was exactly what she wanted to do. The planning session back at the hospital lobby had amounted to nothing. Everything had gone wrong today, and she was five seconds away from getting up and leaving without a word. She couldn't deal with it anymore. And when she thought about all the things she still had to do when she got home, all the Queen and duumvirate duties she had neglected, the feeling got even worse. Cruel as it may sound, she had little room in her heart to care for Mina's morons.
But that wouldn't be like her. She was still the Queen. She was Eclipsa Butterfly. And letting others do work for her while she sat by and watched was not what she did.
"Give me a minute to think." She said. "I'll come up with a plan to save Rafael. I...promise. As for now, is that coffee ready?"
A brief spark of thankfulness spread across Angie's, happy with the sudden decision that Eclipsa made. She left the room without saying a word and headed for the coffee maker. Eclipsa watched her leave and then retreated to her thoughts again. It was the only form of sanctuary she had left.
'Alright, time to take this from the top.' Eclipsa thought, her eyelids growing heavy. 'Let me see. Assuming Bren doesn't do anything to stop them and Marco was lying for whatever reason, the most logical solution would be to contact the police and Mewnian knights and try and communicate with them to establish a treaty. If we're lucky, this could end without any bloodshed. Problem solved.'
Eclipsa then realized she also had no clue about how she would go about accomplishing this. She still hardly knew anything.
'Hm. It's not like they left is much to go on anyways.' She thought. 'They didn't tell us how to contact or talk to them. They also didn't tell us how to even give in to their demands. It's like they wrote that letter then hoped for the best. Who knew their own incompetence would make it harder for the side they were trying to overthrow.'
Angie came back into the room a moment later, carrying an oversized mug of steaming coffee. She handed it to Eclipsa who gulped half the thing down in one go, fighting back tears as her utter lack of foresight caused her tongue to be burned into oblivion.
"I'll make some more of you need it." Angie said, having calmed herself while in the kitchen. "I might want some too honestly. After today, I-"
"Am so tired that you just want to collapse into your bed and do nothing for a month or two?" Eclipsa said, making Angie give her a look of surprise by how accurate that had been. "Yeah, me too. I'm done. Marco's incident earlier at the Ordania's was the last straw. We're both burned out. Not much left to keep the flame alive."
"Wait, what incident?" Angie asked. "Is this the "horrible" thing you mentioned earlier? What happened to him now?"
"I don't know honestly." Eclipsa said. "We were leaving the Ordania's house when suddenly he just started convulsing and hyperventilating. I slapped him to get him out of it because I thought he was under some kind of bewitchment, but then his nose started bleeding like a river. And after that…" Eclipsa bit her lip as the whole experience came back to her. "...the screaming began."
"Screaming?" Angie keened.
"Unfortunately, yes." Eclipsa said. "His started shrieking like it was the end of the world. He also mentioned something about how a promise and how someone wouldn't do something." She gritted her teeth. "And I have my own theories about that…"
"Then-then what happened?" Angie asked,wanting to run upstairs and hug her son again. This would definitely explain his apathetic attitude from earlier. The fact that he had still been suffering like this even after his resurrection almost made her want to vomit.
"Then he tried to run." Eclipsa replied. "He got out of the car and would have fled, if the seat belt hadn't caught itself on his ankle. He fell to the ground, hit his head, and knocked himself out." Eclipsa then made a "tch" sound. "Until, at least, he woke up a minute later, asking me if he had heard that. And I don't know what "that" was supposed to be. But then he begged me to take him home, and here we are."
Angie remained silent. Until Eclipsa heard quiet sobs coming from her. Tear drops rained down from her face and landed in the carpet below, and they only increase as the seconds passed by. Eclipsa quickly set her coffee down on the table in front of her and went over to comfort Angie.
"I'm so scared for him." She cried. "He's been through so much today. I'm scared that he's going to lose his mind over it all. I'm scared that he'll have nightmares for weeks on end. And I'm scared that the suffering might get worse from here."
As Angie continued to cry, Eclipsa set her hand on her shoulder, not knowing what else to do. This seemed to work for a slight moment, but Angie quickly went back to sobbing, breaking down entirely while all Eclipsa felt she could do was watch. But she still had to try and help.
"I know. I'm sorry." She said. "But while we can take care of everything else ourselves, the only thing we can do for Marco is hope he gets better on his own. The forces that are plaguing him like this are far beyond our control."
"That doesn't make me feel better." Angie wailed. "Quite the opposite actually."
Eclipsa paused. She didn't know how to continue handling this. Comforting people was one of her strong suits, but even she had no idea about what she should do in this situation. She had never faced something like this. The possession, the fire-God, the nightmares...she herself was getting close to crying because of it all. It was just so much to take in.
"I...I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine." Angie sniffled. "Well, not really, but you didn't make it as bad as you probably thought you did. But learning that we can't do anything about it doesn't help. If that's true, then he's all alone in this."
"No. He still has us." Eclipsa said. "We can help him through it."
"Then what exactly do you suggest we do?" Angie asked. "You said it yourself. It's beyond our control."
"That doesn't mean the only thing we can do is sit down and feel sorry for him." Eclipsa said. That might have sounded a little cruel to Angie, but it was the truth. She herself had already done plenty of that, and she learned that giving up was to lose before the battle even began. And Eclipsa knew that they were dangerously close to defeat.
"T-then what should we do?" Angie cried. "What's the first step to helping him?"
"Saving your husband." Eclipsa said, making Angie perk up. "He needs both of his parents to get him through this. We find him, and then you two along with everyone else will help Marco anyway you can. Even if he doesn't want it. It's how my parents helped me through things." Eclipsa then hesitated for a brief moment. "Before, of course, they disowned me for falling in love with Globgor. But that's besides the point."
"Then what's your plan?"
Eclipsa took a deep breath. "I'm going to guess that if they're stupid enough to try the same type of plan twice, then they're stupid enough to fall for another sting operation." She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and started to dial. "Call the police." She told Angie. "Tell them that I want to speak to them."
"Wait, if I'm calling the police, then are you calling?"
"...An old friend."
Halfway across town…
In a dark, dreary, and rather cumbersome place, two of Mina's morons were standing guard over Rafael, small knives in their hands and still dressed in their prison uniforms. And as most stereotypical henchmen guarding some did, they argued.
"What's the bosses plan?" One asked, itching to take potshots at a nearby rat. They didn't have a gun, but they still had the urge."
"We wait until the demands are made stupid." The other one said. "Weren't you at the meeting covering all that? Why are you even asking?"
"...I was busy."
"You were sitting in the front row! I saw you!"
"I wasn't paying attention."
"Oh, you're hopeless. You know, I'm betting that Mina-"
"Praise Mina."
"Praise Mina. I'm betting that Mina would have kicked you-"
"You're nothing special either!"
The shout echoed around the walls, and both of them stared at each other like they were looking at literal walking garbage.
The one with the potshot itch scoffed. "Why did we get paired together to guard this guy? We hate each other."
"Yeah." The second one replied. "But at least-"
"Excuse me." A voice from behind them said. They both turned their heads slightly to gaze at Rafael, tied to a simple wooden chair by a rope that looked like it had been bought at a dollar store.
"But can I suggest that you two-" Rafael attempted to say, before he was rudely interrupted.
"Quiet!" The second one shrieked. "You're not allowed to speak! Bosses orders. If you speak again we'll knock all your teeth out." He turned back to Potshot. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, but at least we're getting the easy jobs. Guarding this guy is the most undemanding thing I've ever done."
"Easy for you to say." Potshot exclaimed. "I'm half bored out of my mind. When is our shift over? I'm hungry." He said this with the whininess of a 6 year old child, and instantly Rafael realized that he could probably just convince them to untie him if he tried hard enough.
"You're hungry?" He said, putting his on-the-spot plan into action. "So am I! Listen, if you let me go, then I can-"
"QUIET!" The second one roared. "Speak again and it's a boot to the face that you'll get! I don't care what you can do for us!"
Rafael winced. This would not be so easy. If it was only the potshot one here, the one that seemed much more gullible, he might be able to do it. He looked around. Was there anything he could use? If he could-
"Great, now I'm hungry." The second one said. He sighed and turned to leave. "I'm going to get a snack. Stay here and watch the prisoner."
"Hey! That's not fair at all!" Potshot complained. "I said I was hungry first, so I should get to eat first!"
"Yeah, but the boss likes me more, so deal with it." The second one lied. He walked away and vanished into the surrounding darkness, leaving Potshot and Rafael by themselves.
"Ugh. What a jerk." Potshot said to himself. "I swear, what Mina-" He paused. "...Praise Mina. What Mina was thinking when she accepted him into our group is beyond me. The boss likes him more? Give me a break! I met him first! And I said I was hungry first! That should be enough to-"
"I can make you something to eat." Rafael blurted out. "If you let me go, I can make you something."
"Be quiet." Potshot ordered. "You know you're not allowed to speak. Do you wanna get punched in the mouth, or is it just plain…...wait, did you say you could make me something to eat?"
Rafael held back a grin. It was already working.
"Yes." He said. "I can make the most delicious meal you have ever tasted! All you need to do is untie me, show me where you keep your food, and I'll get to work!"
"You-you'd really do that?" Potshot asked, his hunger and basic stupidity getting the best of him. "Cause I'll be honest, all I've had to eat for a long time is prison food. It's so bland that I've almost forgotten what real food tastes like."
Rafael gasped for dramatic effect. "How horrible!" He said. "You must have greatly suffered in there!"
"I did!" Potshot exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. "And what's worse, I've hardly had anything to eat since we broke out this morning! Just a cracker! One. Damn. Cracker! And it wasn't even a good cracker! It was crumbly and stale and all that."
"I can't believe what I am hearing." Rafael said. "You poor man. Please, untie me this instance so I may fix you something proper! I promise it will be-"
"Not done yet." Potshot said. "And then there was the problem with the other prisoners. They didn't respect us at all! Like, hello! We are the followers of Mina Loveberry! A little respect over here!"
"Uhh...yes, of course." Rafael said, his eyes darting from side to side. "But what were you saying about foo-"
"And that doesn't even bring to describe the complete travesty that was the library! I only went to it once, but I could tell just how run down it was. Here, let me tell you about that…"
As Potshot began rambling on about how the prisons books had broken spines or some irritating nonsense like that, Rafael began to sweat in the chair. This was getting out of hand. He had to get out now. He had no idea when the other one would return, and he certainly wouldn't fall for the same trick. It was now or never.
"Hey!" Rafael said loudly, making Potshot pause mid-sentence. "You know, I've learned it's best to talk over a meal. Why don't we combine this? You untie me and I can fix you something nice, along with the rest of your friends except that guard that was just here, while you can tell me all your horrible prison tales! What do you say?"
Potshot seemed to think about it. One hand, the utter bollocking he would receive for untying Rafael would be greatly damaging to his poor mental health, which was already extremely fragile after his short prison stay. But on the other hand...he was really hungry. And he could brag all day long about the awesome meal he got while the other guard would be chewing down on crackers. It would be glorious.
"Okay." Potshot said. "I like this idea." He walked around to the back of the chair and slowly began to untie the knots. Rafael looked around as casually as he could, checking to make sure that nobody else was around.
He felt the tension in his body slide away as the ropes fell to the floor, and Potshot stood up straight.
"Alright." He said. "All done. Now let me take you to the food area, and there we can-"
Before Potshot could say anything else, Rafael stood up, turned around, and punched him in the throat. Potshot stumbled backward in shock, before Rafael picked up the chair with one hand and smashed it over his head. Potshot fell to his knees, and for the finishing blow Rafael reared his hand back and karate-chopped him in the neck. The personification of stupidity among Mina's followers fell to the ground, unconscious, and Rafael briefly surveyed his handiwork.
"That was something my mijo taught me." He boasted before quickly running off. All he had to do now was find a way out. There was nothing else to it.
This problem was already fixing itself.
Meanwhile...
On the other side of town, in the middle of a giant forest, there once sat a great place. A place overflowing with magic. A sacred and special place, restricted to only the most elite of the elite magic users.
The Magic Sanctuary.
But as the whole world would soon know, it wasn't like that anymore. It never would be. It was long gone, replaced by something far more sinister. It was something else now.
The doors to the Fire Sanctuary swung open as Bren, clad in blood-soaked clothes and wearing a rather gleeful expression, entered and strolled in like the CEO of a fast food chain walking into one of their backwoods restaurants. He was moving so fast that Tom had to speed walk to keep up with him, and slung over the demon prince's shoulder was one of Mina's followers, specifically guard #2, he who is hated by Potshot. Freshly kidnapped and knocked out cold, he was about to become part of a most dreadful affair.
"Set him done here." Bren said, pointing to a random spot on the floor. Tom begrudgingly threw him on the floor and then walked over to a nearby corner and waited, sensing that he wasn't needed for the moment.
He hated this. He hated all of this. Tom had immediately taken note of the fact that Bren's clothes were splattered with a new shade of crimson after his fight with Marco, and his hatred for his "master" somehow grew even higher. But he knew what would happen if he disobeyed.
He just wished everybody else knew as well.
Bren kneeled over the guard and slapped him in the face, which provoked approximately zero response. Groaning in annoyance, he grabbed both of his arms and dragged him over to one of the nearby bonfires. He held the guards left hand directly over the flames, frying it in an instant.
As the air became thick with the smell of cooking flesh, the guards eyes shot open and he let out a guttural scream, yanking his arm away from Bren and the fire.
"AH! SHIT!" They exclaimed, cradling their burned hand. They frantically looked around for whoever had done this them, their eyes filled with newfound rage. "WHO THE HELL-" They spotted Bren and backtracked in an instant.
Letting out a silent and lengthy expletive, the guard got up off the ground and moved away from Bren, who had the slightest semblance of a grin on his face. They tried to run for the door, but Bren nodded at Tom, who stepped in front of them and shoved them back.
They stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, landing on their burnt hand. More swears poured out of the guards mouth as Bren fought back laughter at the pitiful display. He sighed happily and decided to just end this as quickly as possible.
"Alright." He said. "I'm sure you're wondering why you're here, and why I-"
"You're Bren. That guy everyone was talking about." The guard said fearfully, still clutching their hand. "You-you killed Mina. You got us put in jail. You ruined everything we worked towards!"
Bren looked from side to side. "Tch. Whole damn town knows who I am now…" He complained. "But on the topic of what I'm doing to you guys and Mina, should I say sorry? I mean, I'm not sorry, but if it makes you feel better for a few minutes before your death, then I suppose I could-"
"Wait, you're going to kill me?!" The guard exclaimed, jumping up again.
"Uh, yeah. What'd you expect? That I would just let you go?" Bren asked. "No. You're one of Mina's followers. I would have killed all of you if you hadn't been put in prison like that. Really, you should be grateful you were locked up. It's much more favorable than I what I would have done to you…" Bren then got a glint in his eye as the orange glow emitting from them intensified, almost as if he was looking forward to it. The guard gulped and took a step backwards, but was careful of Tom who he knew was still lurking behind him.
"Then why am I still alive?" He asked. "What did you bring me here for? And why me in particular?"
"Back to the questions already?" Bren sighed. "Fine then. If you must know, I had an assumption earlier." He started pacing around as he answered the guard's question. "About something. What the assumption was isn't important right now, and frankly, I'm not going to give you the honor of knowing. But I need you because while I'm positive that my suspicions are correct, I want to be absolutely sure. As for why I chose you...well, you were just an easy target. You should never have snuck off to go get that snack. I believe it would be about now that your partner is knocked out on the floor and Rafael is escaping…"
"He's not my partner." The guard growled. "He's hardly even-wait, what do you mean knocked out? And that guy we captured escaped?! And is name is Rafael?!"
"That's the short of it." Bren said, shrugging. "Honestly, I expected it to happen sooner, considering just how incompetent you lot are." He chuckled for a brief moment. "It's actually sad to think about. This was pretty much your best, and it went so badly that Butterfly and Diaz won't even have to intervene this time." Bren then started pacing again. "Hm. Wonder how they're doing? I haven't really checked up on them for the past few hours, and while I did beat Marco into a bloody paste, I'm positive that I didn't kill him…"
Across the room, Tom flinched. Specifically right after "bloody paste." If Bren said he was sure that he didn't kill Marco, then there was a good chance that it was the truth. But Tom remembered when he first fought him. That...creature wearing the face of a man. He remembered how hard he hit. Tom didn't think Marco could even take one punch from Bren, assuming he wasn't holding back. It hurt to think about. He brought his focus back to the conversation, the idea of Marco lying dead in a hospital bed being too painful to think about.
"What are you talking about?" The guard asked.
"None of your business." Bren said. "Now, time for my questions." He clasped his hands together."Like I said, I brought you here for information, so you're going to give it to me."
"And why should I?" The guard said. "You said you were going to kill me! What's the point of telling you anything if I know I'm going to die afterwards?"
"A very good point." Bren said, giving him a smile similar to one a talk show host would give to a rude guest. "I am going to kill you, whether you tell me what I want to know or not. But if you don't tell me, then I can promise that you will die via torture. Several long and excruciatingly painful hours of torture. But if you do tell me...then I'll make it quick."
"..."
"So yeah." Bren said, spreading his arms. "That's your incentive."
The guard took a moment to think about this. Both options ended with his death, so he had to be smart about his if he was to survive. But Bren wasn't the threat here. After all, he was nothing but a kid. He looked scrawny. The real threat was the demon behind him. If he could take the demon out, then he could just push the little monster into one of those bonfire pits. But how? How could he-
"So. First question." Bren said, before pausing and laughing again. "God, this feels weird. Usually it's other people asking me the questions, not the other way around. Ah, well. I guess you just gotta do what you have to."
"I-" The guard started.
"Who set this up?" Bren interrupted. "Who's your boss?"
"What?" The guard said. "Our boss?"
"Yeah." Bren said expectantly. "It's obviously someone else. You guys are too stupid to come up with a plan on your own, even an unoriginal one like kidnapping Rafael. Somebody else is pulling the strings here, thin as they are. So who is it?"
"Uhh...I don't know." The guard said unconvincingly. "None of us even know what we're doing! We were just all broken out of prison by a bunch of masked short people and then told to kidnap that guy. So we did, and then we were told to go to stupid warehouse and wait."
"You don't know who?" Bren asked.
The guard nodded frantically.
Bren turned away from them and shook his head. "Hm. Alright then. Lucitor, break his arm or something. Choose whichever one you want, I don't care."
The guards heartbeats instantly tripled as they turned towards Tom, who was already heading their way. They jumped up and lunged for Bren, but Tom teleported directly in front of them in a tower of fire. They stopped cold and turned to run, but it was too late. The demon prince grabbed their left arm and toward it as hard as he could, being rewarded with a disgustingly loud SNAP as the bone shattered. Tom honestly would have hated doing it, but considering who he was doing it to, he found it rather difficult to feel sorry for the same person who had beaten his sorta-kinda totally not girlfriend to near death.
'...Sorta-kinda…' He thought, now completely unconcerned with the screaming man now clutching his arm.
As Tom thought about his oh-so precious feelings, one of the only things he had left at this point, the guard fell to his knees, sobbing. Bren approached and loomed over him, the look on his face already telling the guard what he wanted to know.
"I'm telling you." The man repeated. "None of us know who is he. We just got a phone call and-"
"A phone call?" Bren asked. "Really? Where did you even get the telephone after the prison break? And more importantly, who's the idiot that came up with all these ridiculous cover stories? Clearly their stupidity knows no bounds."
"I...I…" The guard stammered, knowing that the jig was up. And the look on his face told Bren exactly that.
"Ah." He said. "Glad to see that you finally realized just how bad this is looking for you. Granted, it was bad from the start, but if there's one thing I hate on this annoying little world, it's liars."
Bren paused.
"...And interrupters." He continued. "And Star Butterfly. And Eclipsa Butterfly. In fact, just jot down the entire Butterfly family. Now who else...ah, yes. Mina, Marco, Janna, the royals, that little fucking horse head, and-"
"What are you going to do with me?" The guard asked.
"I thought I already made that obvious earlier." Bren said. "Wow, terrible memories, awful liars, more stupid than a robot dog bought at a k-mart, and you're still not telling me the truth. How your bloodline has managed to survive this long is beyond me. Clearly you have some sort of divine protection, although I guess god is currently looking the other way."
"I-if I tell who our boss is, will you promise to let me go?" The guard asked, now remembering full well that Bren intended to murder him.
Bren pursed his lips and thought about it.
"Sure." He said. "But if you lie again, then it's death by fire." He pointed to one of the bonfire pits.
The guards good arm started shaking in fear but at the same time he let out a sigh of relief. If he played his cards right, he might be able to make it out of...wherever he was alive.
"Okay. Okay…" The guard took a deep breath. "It-it's Lord Brudo." He confessed. "He's in charge. He hired someone to break us out, and he told us to kidnap that guy and wait."
Bren nodded and sighed. "Yeah, I suspected as much. That little shit. Couldn't wait, could he? If he had been patient, none of this would have happened. But of course had to try something stupid. And-" Bren speech stopped suddenly, something that the guard just said coming back to him. "Hold on. I thought Brudo was broke after his whole tax day thing. He literally told me that himself. Who did he hire?"
"Alright, that I'm clueless about." The guard said. "And I swear that I'm telling the truth this time!"
"I actually believe you." Bren said, rolling his eyes. "Now, what to do with Brudo…...what's happening next?"
"Next?"
"Next." Bren repeated. "What is Brudo's next move? What is he going to have you do next?"
"Well, originally we were going to wait for a response from the Butterfly's about the random note, but if that guys really escaped like you said, then we would all go to castle Avarius. Brudo told us to go there if anything went wrong."
"Hm. Then that's where I'll be going. Best case scenario, your friends are all there and I get to take care of them. Worst case, only Brudo is there, which isn't as fun. But either way, I'm putting an end to this. Butterfly should thank me really. I'm taking care of Earthni's problems for her!"
The guard rubbed his bad arm with his good one. "Does-does this mean can go now? I told you everything I know."
"Not yet. One last thing." Bren said. "Why are you working for Brudo? You guys hate monsters. Shouldn't you be against him?"
The guard paused. "I mean...if he's helping us, then he has to hate his own kind, right? Okay, we only ever thought of him as an ally."
"If you lot had name tags, every single one would either be "dumb" or "dumber"." Bren said. "I feel like now you're just making up stuff on the spot, and you hadn't planned ahead in any way."
"Umm…"
"Thought so."
"Can-can I go?" The guard asked again. "I told you everything."
"Oh, was that all?" Bren said, the tone in his voice indicating that he didn't intend on keeping his word. "Such a disappointment. I would let you go, but if that's all you know, then I'm afraid it wasn't good enough."
"But-but you promised!" The guard said. "You told me-"
"Exactly." Bren said with glee. "I told you. I ever promised. And even if I had, it wouldn't have meant a damn thing. You were dead the second you broke out of that prison."
The guard stood up. He looked at Tom. "You." He said, pointing at him. "I know who you are. I know that we're not friends and that we don't know each other , but you have to-"
"Won't work." Bren said. "If Star and Marco couldn't convince him, then you sure as hell won't. Lucitor, end this rambling idiot already. Try not to make a mess though, I'd rather not have to clean this place."
Bren turned away from the spectacle as Tom approached the guard for the second and final time. Tom reaches for the guards throat as Bren rubbed his eyes in dissatisfaction. A sudden scream of terror and pain echoed throughout the Sanctuary and then stopped, with the sound of a body hitting the floor a moment later confirming that it was over.
"Throw him into one of the bonfires." He ordered. "Leave no trace."
Tom obeyed and threw the corpse into one of the pits, and it ignited instantly as if coated in oil. The two simply stood there for a moment, watching it burn. Ashes started to fly out for just as Bren turned around and walked away.
"We're going to my depository. I need to pick some things up for what comes next." He told Tom. "Hurry up."
Tom took one last look at the burning body, narrowed his eyes, and then followed Bren.
He wasn't sure how he should feel about what just happened, but he knew for a fact that he didn't feel as bad as he should.
Mansion Avarius…
Halfway across town, Lord Brudo the broke sat in his favorite chair and twiddled his thumbs, waiting for the right time to act. He was growing tired of it though. Of waiting. He had already waited so long for his revenge against Ludo, and since Bren was clearly taking his sweet time in enacting that, he decided to take matters into his own hands. And although he loathed working with the same people who wished to expunge monsters from Earthni, he was out of options for potential help.
But it would all be worth it.
Once Mina's followers took over the town and all monsters were captured, Brudo would personally execute Ludo in the streets. For everything he had done, Ludo was no longer family. He was a disgrace and unworthy to carry the Avarius name. After that, the knights of Mewni would simply swoop in and kill Mina's morons, while he would already be long gone. And he wouldn't feel the slightest twinge of guilt at it either.
'They were never going to succeed.' He thought to himself. 'They're so useless that I had to put the kidnapping idea into their head for them to even think of it. After I had my children break them all out…' He paused and his mind went back to his heirs.
'Well, the ones that haven't turned to Dennis's side anyways. But anyways, they would never have gotten out of that prison by themselves. They're nothing without Mina, little more than some mindless drones that will follow anyone's orders, no matter who they are.'
As this thought left his mind, a loud ringing sound rang through the house. Brudo nearly jumped out of his slippers at the sudden noise, and pulled Bren's black communication of his pocket.
"What?" He growled. "This is not a good tim-"
"I know what you're doing." Bren's said, not waiting for him to finish. "And it is genius."
"Wha-what do you mean?" Brudo croaked, his voice dying in his throat.
"The whole breaking Mina's followers out of prison and having them kidnap Rafael." Bren replied. "I love it. I wish I could have thought of it."
"How-how did you even find out about that?"
"Do you really have to ask?"
Brudo honestly didn't. Bren always seemed to know what was convenient for him at the time. If he didn't know better, Brudo would have believed he was psychic.
"No. No I don't." He said.
"Good." Bren said. "Now come down to the Sanctuary. I'll meet you there to discuss our next point of action."
Brudo blinked. Was this really happening? Bren found out about his secret plan and liked it? It was unprecedented. But why there? At the Sanctuary?
"Why don't we just keep talking like this-"
"No time!" Bren interrupted. "I'll see you then!" The line suddenly went dead and Brudo stared at the device in shock. He still couldn't believe what he had heard, but he wasn't complaining. He jumped out of his chair and threw on a coat before running out of the house, moving faster than he ever had in years. So fast, in fact, that he failed to notice the two pairs of eyes watching him from a nearby bush, as well as some horns sticking out of them.
"Dumb bastard." One of the pairs of eyes said. As Brudo ran out of view, Bren stood up and brushed himself off. He moved towards the front door towards the front door while Tom dragged a giant metal crate behind them. Bren flicked the doorknob off, entered, and took a seat in Brudo's favorite chair. Tom set the crate down at a random spot while Bren grabbed the regular house phone placed next to the chair.
"Time to make a call..." He said to himself, and a minute later a cell phone rang in a semi-abandoned warehouse, every person inside frantically searching for Rafael.
Everything was going according to plan.
End chapter 18
A/N: Well, Bren certainly has something planned. And Mina's morons were hardly a threat. Might have made them out to be one, but obviously their incompetence got the better of them. The next chapter won't be kind on them or Brudo. And that's being generous.
And I know this chapter is shorter than usual, and this might be how long future chapters will be from now on. Sorry about that.
And depending on how the next chapter goes, this fic may be rated M from then on. If it does end up like that, then I'll leave a note telling everyone that.
Until next time.