Darkness Falls - Chapter 7: Calamity
"Iris?!" Eyes widening, Zero stood there, dumbfounded. She was standing there, in front of him, just as he remembered her. Except… she seemed… different. Scared, worried…
Different.
"Zero." She nodded, her brown hair slipping over her shoulder. She was different; he could see that now. Her dress was torn in several places, and dirt was smudged on her face, adding to the worry, the fear. Something was wrong. Something she didn't want to tell him.
"Zero… X, Alia, Cain… Caroline." Iris took a step forward, a horrible strangled noise coming from the back of her throat. "I tried to stop them… but I couldn't… it's coming…"
"What's coming Iris? What? Is it, is this-"
He wanted to tell her to shut up; it wasn't fair. Iris was here for him, not for her. She had no right to interfere, no right to talk to her. She didn't know Iris! She didn't! Angry, Zero clenched his fist, grinding his teeth together. No right at all…
Yes. She deserves to die, doesn't she? She's taking Iris away from you, again. You should stop her Zero. Stop her before Iris is gone, for a second time.
A voice was talking to him now. But that didn't matter… it was right. She was taking Iris away from her. And she did deserve to die.
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Iris was dead. Iris was no longer alive. Iris was standing right in front of her.
Feeling more than just slightly confused, Alia stared at Iris, the illusion of Iris. She was babbling on about something… about not being able to stop something, about someone coming… she didn't understand…
"Caroline, you have to get them out of here! They're different; they… they won't just be killed, they'll be taken… The legend that your mother told you. Remember the legend!"
It was impossible to believe. It was impossible to be happening. Your friends do not just randomly come back from the dead and start yelling odd things like that to the girl you were trying to take care of. It just didn't happen. There was something seriously wrong here.
Yes there is, little girl. And you're not going to interfere with this. You're going to die with the rest of them, and I'm going to claim your soul. I'm going to claim it for my own. You're mine, little girl!
Alia would have screamed. She could feel it building up in the back of her throat, one of those ear-splitting ones that the heroines in bad horror movies always seemed to make. Except there was something choking her, something cutting off her air, something making it hard to breathe…
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Nothing was making sense anymore. He could tell that, just by the fact that Iris was standing in front of them, looking real and alive. If you just ignored the fact that she was slightly transparent, you would have thought that she really had returned from the grave.
But, how can you really ignore the fact that you can see through someone? X was trying, but so far, he was failing.
He sensed that there was something terribly wrong in the room, almost like there was something there that shouldn't have been. The air felt thick and tasted almost musty, stale. Old air. But why would there be a flavor like that hanging around? And next to him, he noticed, vaguely, that Alia was trying to scream. And Zero… Zero looked like he was ready to kill something…
Yes, he does, doesn't he? A voice cackled merrily in his mind. He's going to serve my purpose better than you and that little girl combined could. Frankly, I'm not even sure if that girl is good for anything… females tend to be weak and crumble easily.
Except for Miku.
Anger flared through him. Not an emotion, more like an actual tangible substance. It hurt, caused an intense ringing in his ears, and generally didn't feel all too good. But it subsided after a moment. And a cloudy feeling filled his mind, making it hard to concentrate on anything…
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She could see her influence touch everyone in the room. Caroline shrank back into her chair, staring at her. Malice. Alia was screaming, screaming desperately with nothing coming out, X was unconsciously, and Zero…
Zero scared her more than anyone else. He wanted to kill. Malice wanted people, and wanted their souls, but never did she, he, it… never did Malice try to kill just for pleasure. The feeling that was radiating from him was frightening.
Cain was dead. He was killed the moment she had entered the room.
Iris could feel her influence growing weaker by the moment. The force that Malice was giving off was draining her, trying to pull her in, like sh-, like it was doing with all these others. Fighting it off, she placed a hand lightly on Caroline's shoulder, pulling her out of her horrified stupor. "We have to leave! Before she can get to you!"
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The feeling of Iris touching her arm was all the encouragement the Caroline needed to get moving. As much as she loved the kind ghost-girl, the feeling of a spirit was enough to give you nightmares.
There was another presence in the room. She could see it, barely, but she could more feel it. A think, heavy, foreboding feeling. Deadly, even. Just breathing the air felt dangerous, like she might accidentally breath in part of it, choking and killing her. But of course, that was silly. How could that happen? Air couldn't just kill you.
But things in the air could.
Disturbed by these thoughts, Caroline followed Iris blindly through the halls, only faintly realizing that the others in the room were still there, that the others hadn't moved at all. Her grandfather had… died…
The warm sun beat down on her, causing her to blink and stare up at the sun. She was outside. Iris had taken her outside. The wounds on her wrists, neck, and ankles began to throb terribly, causing her to hiss in momentary pain.
Iris tapped her on the shoulder and gestured for her to turn around. Complying, she gasped when she saw what was left of the Hunters' Headquarters.
Nothing.