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Within Dreams—Chapter 10
Vitriol had not left the dungeon since she had released her anger. She felt…guilt. Extreme guilt. The guilt was a hundred times worse than the anger had been. And it scared her. She had never felt guilty about venting her anger before and suddenly here she was, eyes stinging with tears at doing just that.
She couldn't bear to look at the boy's battered, unconscious body lying a few yards away. Every time she saw the blood that she had caused to flow gathered around in him in a pool it made her feel sick. And she had enjoyed making that blood flow. She had enjoyed the feeling of the anger leaving her and she had enjoyed the cries of pain that had issued forth from the boy's mouth. But most of all, she had enjoyed the look of utter and total defeat that had been in the boy's eyes before he went unconscious.
Now these recollections sickened her beyond belief. The fact that she had enjoyed doing these cruel things made her feel terrible. And she couldn't understand why. Why had she stopped before finishing him? Why did she feel so wrong about hurting this child?
The questions were pulling at her mind, pounding in her skull and giving her a headache. The headache was so intense it was impeding the ability for her eyes to see. And through the haze, and the pain, a memory returned to her…a memory from long ago…before she became Vitriol…before she joined sides with Malign…back when she was still Nema. In that memory, she was happy. Happiness…it was something she hadn't felt since that day so long ago. It was something she missed immensely.
The memories were coming to her more clearly now, and faster. Back to when she was so young she had never heard of Malign, then further still to a memory of her and Rea playing when they were no more than three years old.
And then these memories disappeared and she was suddenly re-experiencing the day she'd joined Malign. How excited she'd been. How she'd thrown away her real name and adopted Vitriol as her name. She still remembered why she'd chosen Vitriol. It was because it meant something resembling acid. And that was how her soul felt. Like acid.
It was that day that the anger inside her began to build. It built every day until she no longer cared what happened to others. All that mattered was getting rid of that anger. It came to a point where the anger became unbearable. That was the first day she vented that anger. But she did it the wrong way. She attacked Malign. That ended in pain, which brought the anger back to her, worse than ever.
And finally she resolved the problem: attack the prisoners. Malign wouldn't mind that. In fact, he encouraged it. That was how things went on…until Malign succeeded in bringing these children here, to their world. Until she attacked this human child she had never felt remorse. And now she had. And she didn't like it.
The headache suddenly left her. She was still in the dungeon. Still sitting near the boy. And still a faithful servant to Malign. Nothing, not even her memories, could save her now.
~*~
TK opened his eyes and was surprised to see that they were no longer in the abandoned apartment building. They were now in a green, healthy forest. He also noticed that Rea was not asleep.
"Rea, how'd we get here?" he sleepily inquired.
Rea grinned and answered: "remember how I said I had a little bit of control over this world? Well, I brought us here. I thought all of you would like it a little better than that old apartment building. Besides, it's a nicer environment to talk about how we can get you all home in."
"Oh," TK yawned. It was still early. Way too early for him to be getting up.
"Go on ahead and go back to sleep," Rea said.
TK closed his eyes and was soon sleeping once again. TK hadn't been sleeping long when Rea saw Matt rub his eyes and sit up before yawning. He looked around, sighed and his eyes drooped in disappointment.
"What's wrong, Matt?" Rea inquired.
Matt looked surprised that Rea was awake, but said nothing about that and replied: "I was hoping the convergent dream was just a dream. And why aren't we back in that building anymore?"
Rea quickly delivered the same speech she'd given TK and Matt listened with interest. When Rea finished talking, he questioned: "could you take us anywhere in this world then?"
"I wish I could answer yes to that question, but I can't. Malign is more powerful than I am. He put restrictions on the already somewhat limited power I had over this world before, making me have very little control over this world indeed."
Matt was quiet for a moment, then queried: "is it possible to beat Malign?"
"In this world, anything is possible. This is both a fortunate and unfortunate thing. But yes, Malign can be beaten."
"I don't mean to be annoying with all these questions, but this is my last one," Matt began: "that other girl back at the building, the one you were battling with—is she stronger than you?"
"Who? You mean Vitriol?" Matt nodded and she said: "she wasn't always stronger than me. But that was a long time ago. Now she is stronger than me. A great deal stronger, in fact." She added a question of her own at the end of her answer: "aren't you tired?"
Matt shook his head and replied: "not really. I would think you'd be more tired than I am. Did you stay up all night?"
Rea nodded and was about to explain that it was physically impossible for her to go to sleep, but Matt said: "sorry about that. I should have kept watch for some of the time."
"Don't be. I don't sleep." She quickly explained about how was unable to sleep to Matt. When she finished her explanation, she stated: "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I'm sorry that you guys had to be dragged into this. It's not fair."
"It's not your fault we got brought here," Matt answered. He quickly changed the subject with: "the others will probably be up soon."
Rea nodded and walked away, wishing there was something she could do that would end the threats of her world for the children that had been thrown into it.
~*~
Vitriol bit her lip and applied medication to the wounds she had inflicted to the boy. It was the only thing she could think of that would rid her of that guilt that had come to her after harming him.
The slashes on his back were worse than any of the other wounds and she had not done them. Those probably hurt, she thought, applying the medication to those as well. She regretted she could not cure him of the poison. At least, not until he wakes up, she thought. The medication that cured the poisoning had to be taken orally. It tasted nasty, but it did the job.
When she had finished, she looked down at the boy. He still looked bad, but at least the wounds were clean now and at least they weren't bleeding as freely as they had been.
She was still looking down at him, holding the medication when a cold voice sharply said: "and just what do you think you are doing?"
Vitriol stiffened. She knew that voice and that particular tone all to well. It was Malign. And he was angry.
"N-nothing," she lied. Unfortunately, she dropped the bowl that was holding the medication. It shattered, the sound echoing through the dungeon and the contents spilling onto the floor.
"It
certainly doesn't look like nothing," Malign spat. "You were trying
to heal that boy, weren't you?"
"N-no!"
"Then why were you holding a bowl of
healing solution?" he roared.
Vitriol was silent, unable to answer the
question without telling Malign the truth.
"Did I tell you that you could
heal the prisoner?"
"No—but I thought—"
"If I wanted you to think, I would tell you to think! You knew I would not approve of this!"
"That's why I didn't ask," Vitriol
mumbled.
"If you want to do something, you always ask me! You belong to me! I own
you!"
Vitriol had had it. Nobody owned her! NOBODY! "I belong to no one!" she spat. "Would you like to know what I think of you?"
Malign smiled and said: "go ahead."
"You are an arrogant, power-hungry egotistical dictator!" As soon as the words left her mouth, Vitriol knew she'd made a terrible mistake. She didn't even have time to move before a powerful blast of energy blew her off her feet and into the far wall.
"Still think I'm all those things?" Malign demanded.
Vitriol didn't answer and she was hit with another blast of energy, and another and another…. Finally she screamed: "I was wrong! I'm sorry!"
Malign stopped hitting Vitriol with the energy blasts and said: "you weren't thinking of rebelling, were you? Because you know what will happen if a rebellious thought enters your mind."
"No! I'd never turn against you!" Vitriol cried.
Malign smiled and said: "prove it."
"What? What do you mean?"
Vitriol was confused. She'd been through punishments before and they usually ended after Malign got tired of beating her. She'd never been asked to prove it.
"Hit this boy with your best shot."
Now Vitriol was stuck. If she didn't hit the boy, she'd end up dead, but if she did hit the boy she'd feel awful. Finally, she sent a few small sparks onto the boy's leg, hoping that the small attack would satisfy her master.
"That was not your best. Now hit this boy with your best before I hit him with mine! And he most certainly won't survive that."
Vitriol bit her lip and formed a large fireball that rained hundreds of the sparks she had previously thrown on the boy. She hesitated, and then threw it at the boy. Then she closed her eyes. She turned away from that scene, refusing to watch.
"Very good," Malign crowed after a few seconds. "You may go. And Vitriol? While we're on such good terms…you can sweep every inch of this castle until every speck of dirt is gone. And you can polish every single skull and bone in my chamber."
Vitriol sighed and began to leave, but Malign stopped her and said: "oh, and Vitriol, don't let me down again. I saw you sparing Rea. If that happens again I'll kill you. And then I'll kill her and all those children I brought into this world as well."