Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds

By Dixxy

Chapter Fifteen: The Sacrifice

(Keisha)

After the clan people had me tied down long enough to transport me somewhere else and stuff me into the back of a van, I began to see just how deep a trouble I was in. They had used MAGIC to teleport us to some woods. I wasn't sure what my grandmother had gotten into, but I didn't think it was a good thing at that point.

Two of the hood people sat it front while the rest of them were in the back with me, including Grams and a man carrying a wooden staff with a weird knotted thing on the top. I had long since been tied up and gagged, preventing me from trying to escape. They were all staring at me strangely, which made me even MORE scared.

The van came to a halt minutes later. The back doors of the van were opened and I was carried out. My grandmother escorted the man carrying me through the metal door of some old factory out in the middle of nowhere. Must be some sort of an old power plant, I thought to myself.

I was brought through several plain gray hallways until I was brought to a room done over in black and red silks, all giving it a very harem-like look. I was dropped onto a large pillow (like the ones you can use for pet-beds, only silk and much more expensive looking) and left with my grandmother. I eyed her coolly. How could she do this?

"Today, Keisha dear, is going to be a very important day in your life," she said darkly.

I tried to talk through my gag, but it wasn't working. She bent down and removed the gag, letting me shoot off at her. "What the hell are you doing, Grams? What the hell is this place? Who are these creepy people? Why am I here?" I growled. "This isn't like you! What have you done?"

"Relax, my dear girl," she said. "You are necessary for us to revive the Death Lord."

"DEATH LORD?" I said in alarm. That's the same guy that the guy with the big wooden staff was talking about. But who or what is their Death Lord and why do they need me to revive him? Does it have to do with my powers as a Senshi? I shook my head you defiance. "You want me to help you revive some guy called the DEATH LORD? Yeah, right!"

Grams didn't seem to care about my opinion on the whole deal and just looked the other way. "Oh, we don't need your consent to do this, Keisha, my dear," she said. "We simply needed to find someone who fit the qualifications of the sacrifice he wanted and you fit the bill."

My jaw dropped and a whole new string of retorts started. "You're going to SACRIFICE me? God damn it, Grams! This is insane! This is evil! You just lost my parents less than a month ago! Why are you just throwing me away?" I asked in between tears. "Grams, why?"

Her eyes shimmered. "Who do you think bumped them off, my dear?"

I froze. "You mean. . . you people. . ."

"Yes," she said. "There wasn't any way that I would have been able to keep a close eye on you if they were still involved. I knew that it wouldn't take much to kill your parents, what with them already being handicapped and all. So we planned to destroy them so I could begin to prepare you for what was to come." A cold, evil smile crawled onto her face. "It was such a simple killing. The boys enjoyed it thoroughly."

I screamed at her, disowning her as my own flesh and blood and cursing her to hell as more tears began to flow. She just laughed at me, taking joy in my anger and frustration. I could barely believe what I was seeing, praying that everything that happened from the time Kento and I woke up was just some dream. Yes, any minute I'd wake up to find him worried over me and telling me it was just a nightmare and that everything was going to be all right.

But that wake up never happened. Grams had stopped laughing, instead talking to a few women who'd come into the room. I half-recognized one voice as one of my attackers from the previous night. So that's it- she sent me out of the house to have her clan kidnap me. But why not just take me inside the house? I wondered. Evan. She wanted to split us up. But why not send Evan out and take me away while he wasn't home? Wait, never mind that. They spread themselves out around outside so it would be easier for all of them to hide and drag me off. I watched them exchange a few words. My grandmother nodded, motioning for the women to go and get something.

Minutes passed and the woman returned with an assortment of items that included a knife, several clay pots, and something that looked like a pile of cloth and jewels. I stared at the objects, slightly frightened at the knife. Before I could react, however, several of the women held me down. "Hey! Get your hands off of me! I mean it!"

Then one of the women picked up the knife.

I screamed. I was going to die, and I was staring at my murderer!

Much to my surprise, she was using the knife to cut my clothing away. Little by little, my shirts, jeans, and underclothing were sliced off, leaving me in only the ropes that bound me. I shivered from cold, and blushed from my nudity. For crying out loud, more people have seen me naked in the past twenty-four hours than when I was born!

My grandmother sat in the back, watching the proceedings as they began to rub oils, gels, and pastes from the pots all over my body. Some of them burned, some of them felt cool, and others tickled. Overall, I didn't like them one bit. I knew that something bad was going on, and unless one of the tickle-substances was being rubbed on my body, I was protesting, swearing, and letting them know just how pissed off I was.

Eventually, satisfied with their work, they all backed off minus the woman with the knife, who cut my binds loose. One laid the cloth piece before me and I saw it was an outfit. The dress, which was too short for my liking, was white and embedded with thousands apon thousands of tiny jewels in hundreds of colors. It had no straps, and looked like it stopped right around the knees. I stared at the dress and I tried to cover myself, unsure of what was going on.

"Put it on, Keisha," said my grandmother.

I stared at her darkly, letting her know I hated her guts. In response she walked over to me, slapped me, and repeated the demand, this time yelling it. The woman who had ripped my clothing off bared the knife threateningly. I finally obeyed her and dressed in the new clothing. Satisfied, they all left. I heard a click as the door closed and realized that they must have locked the door.

I tested the strength of the door, trying to figure out if I had a prayer of a chance at bringing it down on my own. No such luck. I swore, trying to think of something. If I didn't get out of there, not only would I be dead, but it would be helping some guy named the Death Lord. That didn't sound good, and I didn't want my friends to have to deal with it.

I looked over at the scraps of cloth that had once been my clothes and suddenly remembered my armor orbe was somewhere in that mess. I darted over, searching through pockets for the desired object. Apon finding it, I grinned, knowing that one well placed spell or Iron Rock Crusher was my ticket out of there.

Before I could armor up, however, I heard the door open. I stuffed the armor orbe down my cleavage, watching the door as the leader of the group came in. He smiled at me darkly. I sneered, and he laughed, not seeming to care how much I did not want to be in that place with his clan and my grandmother. "Welcome, young one."

"Go to hell," I spat.

The man chuckled. "No, no, no, when the Death Lord is revived, we'll all be immortal. Death will never touch any of us," he said. He grinned and bowed in an almost formal way before me. "My name is Simon. I am the High Priest of the Dark Wing, servant of the Death Lord."

I narrowed my eyes. This guy must be for real. But why would my grandmother join him and his crazy friends? She, should wouldn't have done that! Especially not when it involved killing my parents and me! "What have you done to my grandmother?" I asked. "She used to be kind, loving, and gentle. Why have you brainwashed her?"

Simon scoffed, glaring at me darkly. "Silly little girl. I did nothing of the sort. It was between her and the Death Lord that she decided to join our numbers," he said. His eyes seemed to glow in a smug triumph that I didn't like. I shrunk back from him, eyeing him in suspicion. "Just like every one else."

"So he's the one that's possessed them, is he?" I said. "Is that it?"

"My, my, you jump to conclusions easily," said Simon, clucking his tongue, shaking his head, and twitching his finger. "He has offered us, his loyal servants, to serve him in his new empire once we revive him from the spirit world. Then, we shall destroy all who oppose us and rule this pathetic world with him as our master."

"You can't possibly get away with this," I said, clenching my fist and gritting my teeth. I turned my head away from him and towards the ceiling, trying my hardest to look defiant. "Even if you do kill me and go through the process of reviving your stupid 'Death Lord', someone will be able to take out this 'Death Lord' of yours."

"Nonsense, little virgin," he said.

Virgin? I thought to myself. I stared at him in confusion, wondering why he'd called me that.

Simon looked at me with worry. "You are a virgin, right?"

I blinked, startled by his statement. Then, I narrowed my eyebrows at him. "What business of yours is it if I am or if I'm not?" I snapped, crossing my arms and tapping my foot. "What I do behind closed doors is my business and the business of my partner, NOT yours, you pathetic looser."

Simon gulped, then pointed his staff at me. I gasped as a white energy emitted from it, wrapping around me. I lifted my hand, watching as my hand was surrounded by a white hue. My eyes widened as the hue slowly began to darken to a thick, dismal gray in color. I narrowed my eyebrows, unsure of what was going on. I looked up at him in confusion, silently demanding to know what was going on.

The leader of the Dark Wing looked at me in astonishment and worry, his hand shaking. Then, he composed himself and stared at me coolly. "So, you AREN'T a virgin," said Simon, sounding strangely calm. "Your grandmother promised us a virgin. Why aren't you a virgin?"

Suddenly, everything clicked into place. THAT was why Grams had chased Kento off when he went to see if Evan and I were all right- she needed to keep me a virgin until the sacrifice could occur. It had nothing to do with race- even if I was seeing someone black she would have chased him off, only with a different excuse. Had I not escaped from the Dark Wing the previous night, there wouldn't have been anything anyone could have done to rescue me. But now that I'd spent the night with Kento and, although unintentionally, fouled up their plans, I'd probably bought myself some time.

The door opened and SHE came in. "Simon. . . what's taking you so long?"

"She isn't a virgin," said Simon.

"WHAT?" she said, looking rather upset and alarmed at the prospect (which, I figured, would have been how she'd react even without the clan- I'd done a MAJOR no-no). "But, but I've been using the indicator ring to test for her virginity ever since we killed her parents! It hasn't failed yet!"

"That's what that ring was?" I said.

"You stay out of this!" she snapped, giving me a dirty look. She sneered. "I bet I know what happened. She's got this big buffoon of a boyfriend, some Chinese kid, that she must've seen and screwed with last night because your slipshod planning let her GET AWAY, YOU IMBECILE!"

Simon scoffed, turning on my grandmother. "It isn't MY fault she got away! You should have learned whether or not the little bitch knew how to fight! Because YOU didn't do YOUR homework, we have a worthless, used piece of trash that does us no good! Now look what YOU'VE done!"

"YOU'RE the one who wanted to capture her outside!"

"She's YOUR granddaughter!"

"I have no control over what she does when she isn't home!"

"Didn't you or her mother teach her not to spread her legs!"

"That was a cheap shot!"

"Bitch!"

Seeing as they were rather preoccupied with their very interesting and attention consuming conversation, I decided that was the time to attempt an escape. I slowly made my way to the door, keeping my fingers crossed that I could somehow get out of there and to a phone so I could call Kento or Sara or someone who could come pick me up and get me away from those evil creeps!

Kento! That's it! I thought. All I had to do was contact him mentally. Then he'd get help from Sara to teleport me back home. I closed my eyes, concentrating on my boyfriend. Much to my dismay, there was too much dark energy for me to get through to him.

And by the time I opened my eyes again, I realized that Simon and my grandmother had seen my near escape. "Oh, don't think that just because you let that little boyfriend of yours have his way with you that you're off the hook," she said. "Guess what? If the Death Lord can't have you as a virgin, then he'll have you AND the one who took your virginity."

My eyes widened in fear. Oh no. Now the Dark Wing was going after Kento!