Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to "Andromeda" or its characters. I am simply borrowing them, I swear!
A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Don't forget to review this chapter.
Title: "The Girl Who Hated All"
Summary: When the Andromeda comes across a very young, and very strange young girl, they have no choice but to allow her to come with them. Harper soon discovers her secret; too bad no one believes him…
Genre: Supernatural/Horror
Rating: PG-13 for language and supernatural occurrences.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter Three
Harper was in his shop, sitting on the ground. So many thoughts were running through his mind that he could barely pay attention to what he was supposed to be doing. 'Maybe I'm being too paranoid about Agrona. I mean, maybe she's perfectly harmless . . . but there's something about her; when I look at her, I feel . . . empty, alone . . . dead.'
He shook his head, ridding his mind of the thoughts, for the minute, at least.
'But the worst part of it all is that my crew members, my friends, won't even listen to me about it. This sucks.' He threw the tool he had been holding to the floor, where it landed with a loud clang, vibrated throughout the room. He jerked his head to look behind him, just to make sure that no one heard all of the noise and was coming to "investigate."
Harper sighed, and stood up. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as an idea flashed through his mind. 'I've got to get back to that planet, find some evidence, anything to prove that I'm right.' He turned around and walked towards the door. He walked out into the hallway, being careful as he rushed past Agrona's room.
Harper's jogging came to a slow walk as he saw Beka round the corner in front of him. "Hey Seamus," she greeted, glancing up only momentarily from the notes she was reading.
"Hey Boss," he replied, trying his best to remain calm, or at least sound calm. He walked unhurriedly behind Beka until she went into the Observation Deck, when he once again took off into a fast-paced jog.
Harper finally reached the entrance to the Hanger Deck. Climbing into the spacecraft nearest the door which led out into space, he sat down in the seat and began to turn the small ship on. The whirring of the engines filled his ears. Taking a deep breath, he watched as the Hanger Deck door's slid open. "Here goes nothin'," he breathed, flying the spacecraft out of the Andromeda and into the darkness . . .
"A spacecraft has just exited the Andromeda," stated Rommie.
"What?" said Dylan, "On screen." The screen flickered, and then showed the spacecraft flying in the opposite direction.
"Harper is in the spacecraft," said Rommie, looking over at Dylan, who was gritting his teeth together. "Should I summon him?"
Dylan nodded. "Yes, let's see what Mr. Harper thinks that he's doing," he replied, annoyance showing clearly in his voice.
Moments later, Harper's face appeared on the screen. "Hey Boss," he greeted, smiling a nervous smile. "What's up?"
"Harper, what are you doing?!" demanded Dylan, his eyes growing wide with anger.
"Listen; don't worry about it, okay? I'm gonna be fine!" Harper insisted. "I'll be back soon, alright? Harper out." The screen went blank, leaving the Andromeda crew to wonder what he was up to.
"I told you; the boy's lost his mind. I knew it would happen eventually," uttered Tyr, breaking the silence that had come over the crew.
"What do you suppose he's doing?" questioned Beka, looking around at everyone.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Trance, stepping foreword. "He's going back to Mykenae."
"But why?"
Trance shrugged. "Maybe to find something to prove us wrong about Agrona," she suggested, raising an eyebrow.
On Mykenae . . .
Harper exited his small ship, feeling his back crack as he stood upright. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he felt a chill fly up and down his spine. He shuddered. "What am I doing here?" he mumbled, shaking his head. "This place gives me the creeps."
Nevertheless, he continued to walk through the forest. He looked around at the trees and plants; they looked unusually brown, as though they were dying. His eyes drifted to each tree he walked past. They all looked the same: brown, wilting, and brittle.
He lifted his hand and set it upon a branch that was extending over the dirt path he was walking on; as soon as his fingers touched the limb, it began to dissolve away. Harper could literally see the branch crumble apart and fall to the forest floor, where it blended in with the soil. He looked at his hand; the branch had left a smear of dirt on his hand.
He moved to wipe the dirt away on his pants, but stopped. He looked closely at his hand; was it just him, or did the smudge have a close resemblance to an eye? He cocked an eyebrow as he lowered his hand, his gaze never leaving the eye.
'I've got to find where Agrona was living before her father died,' Harper told himself, but he could not tear his eyes away from the eye on his hand. His body tensed; this was the same feeling he got whenever he looked into Agrona's eyes . . .
Sweat began to form on his brow. Harper took a deep breath and snapped his eyes shut. He rubbed the palm of his hand on his pants and opened his eyes. He looked at his hand; it was perfectly clean. He sighed in relief and continued to walk, avoiding contact with any of the plants.
After walking for over a mile without finding so much as another living being, Harper was faced with the realization that he was not only completely lost, but had no idea of what he was looking for.
"This is just great," he moaned, slumping down on a rock. "I'm n the middle of nowhere, with no idea of what to do or where to go, and no food . . . nice thinking, Harper." He held his head in his hands. "Well, if I'm gone for a really long time, Dylan, Beka, and everyone will come looking for me eventually."
He lifted his head and looked around at where he was. The forest looked the same, brown, still, and empty. Suddenly, something caught his eye; it was looked like a small hut of some sort. "Maybe that's where Agrona and her father lived," Harper suggested to himself.
He stood up and began walking in the direction of the hut. As he got closer, Harper realized that the hut was not "small," but rather quite large. It was roughly fifteen feet wide and about ten feet tall. There was a rectangular door and four small, square windows on the hut.
Harper approached the door, lifted his hand, and gently rapped on the door. "Hello?" he called. The only response he got was silence. He knocked on the door once again, louder this time. "Hello?!" he called again. Silence. He reached for the round knob on the door and turned.
The door swung open to reveal a large room. Inside of the room were two small mattresses, and, on top of the mattresses, were thin, green blankets and small white pillows.
There was also a table, as well as chairs, standing in the center of the hut. To the left of the table and chairs was a bookshelf stacked with over fifty books. Harper squinted at the bookshelf. That seemed to be the only item worth looking at in the entire hut.
Harper strolled towards the bookshelf and kneeled down. He glanced over the titles of each of the books, a few were in Common, others were in some strange language: Vračanje, Osveta i Smrt, The Wrath of Whirling . . . "Here's one that I can actually understand," said Harper, pulling out the book titled The Wrath of Whirling.
He flipped open to the first page, where someone had written a note on the inside covers. "'Dear Agrona, I am afraid that I must leave you and your father to find what I have been looking for my entire life: pure happiness. Remember; use this book wisely, as I have always taught you. I will love you and miss you terribly. Sincerely, majka.'
"Huh," said Harper, flipping to the first chapter of the book. "'Revenge: An Incantation. Note: Only use against someone who has done pure evil.' A spell for revenge? Agrona is some kind of witch. I wonder what the spell does to you." He shrugged and closed the book, sliding it back into its place.
Harper began to look at the other books on the shelf. None of them were in a language he understood, or were helpful in the least bit. Sighing, he stood up and walked over to the mattress. He collapsed onto his back, laying his head against the pillow. He lifted his head up; there was something hard underneath the pillow. He reached underneath and pulled out a thin, pink book. On the cover, in gold cursive letters, were the words "Moj Zapisnik."
Narrowing his eyes, he opened the book to the first page, where the words "My Diary" were written in a child's handwriting. 'Agrona's diary?' he thought. He glanced around the hut, and then flipped to the next page:
2.2.10089
Dear Diary,
Majaka left this diary for me as a gift before she left to go find "pure happiness." I thought that she was happy here with me and Papa. I thought she loved me, but she hates me, everyone knows it. All of the kids say so. Only Papa loves me. I hate everyone. Except Papa, of course.
Harper re-read the date. "'2.2.10089'?" he read, in a confused tone of voice. "But that was only a few months ago. 'All of the kids'? That means that there must have been people here. But how did they all disappear?" His gaze drifted back down towards the diary, and he continued to read:
2.16.10089
Dear Diary,
Ha ha ha! I can't stop laughing!. Everything is getting better! Majaka's book that she gave me, The Wrath of Whirling, is so helpful to me! Yesterday, I performed the spell on page 143 and today Nizar, the boy who always teases me about Majaka's leaving, got deathly ill, and is expected to die soon! People shouldn't tease me, 'cause I'm more powerful then they are. I'm more powerful then EVERYONE!!
Harper read the entry over and over. "Oh, my God; she killed someone . . . with that spell?" he gasped, unable to believe it. He flipped the page; there were only three entries left.
3.9.10089
Dear Diary,
Papa loves me more and more each day! I help him kill all of the animals for food, and I kill all of the people he and I hate, thanks to Majaka's books. She wasn't thinking, leaving them with us, because she's the next to die! I love having so much power. Papa wants me to teach him how to use the books tomorrow. Soon, everyone on Mykenae will be gone!
3.18.10089
Dear Diary,
We did it! Everyone is gone! Papa and I destroyed everyone on Mykenae! It feels so good to be alone on this planet. But Papa isn't looking too good; I think that older people shouldn't use the spells, because the book said that it requires a lot of energy to perform the curses.
"Oh, my God," Harper said again. "They killed . . . everyone?" He looked at the next entry and his eyes widened; it was the date that they had come to Mykenae:
4.04.10089
I'm crying so hard that I can barely write. Papa died last night. I don't know how it happened! But luckily I found a spell so that I can talk to him whenever I want. Wait, I hear something outside . . . someone's landed on Mykenae, MY planet. Hold on, I need to talk to Papa. I'm back; Papa says that since I have destroyed everyone on this planet, I should go with whoever landed here and find more people to destroy. I'm going to go, probably forever. Bye!
Harper stared at the second to last sentence, his mouth agape. "Oh, my God," he repeated, closing the diary and standing up. "I've got to get back to the Andromeda." He began to walk towards the open door when it suddenly slammed shut. "What the-"
Harper slid the diary into a pocket on his pants and took a hold of the doorknob. He turned, but the door did not move. It seemed to be locked, although there was no lock on the door. Harper's heart began to thump madly in his chest. He continued to pull and push on the door, praying for it to open.
Behind him, a pitch black shadow-like matter began to seep in through the windows. It began to grow larger . . . and larger. Harper began to pound frantically on the wood door. "Come on!" he pleaded, giving the door one last strike before turning around. "Maybe I can get through the windo-" He was cut off at the sight of the dark figure in front of him.
Harper stared at the shadow-like figure, his eyes growing, if possible, even wider. The figure's two small, bright green lights reminded Harper of Agrona's green eyes. He was mesmerized by the lights. His mind was telling him to move, but his body had seemed to shut down. All he could do was stand there and stare.
"Te znati odveć! Te neće kocka zatim , ali te će skoro! " the figure said, in a chilling hiss. "You know too much!" the figure repeated in Common, so that Harper would understand. "You will not die now, but soon you shall!"
Its eyes grew larger and brighter. Harper's own eyes began to sting and burn, but he could not remove his gaze from the green lights. The figure grew larger as well, until it took over the entire hut.
Harper was surrounded by shadow, and the gaze between his and the figure's eyes was broken. Something was happening; the room began to spin around him. He stumbled towards the door and took a hold of the knob. He collapsed onto his knees and turned the knob . . .
The door swung open and Harper crawled out into the forest. He looked back at the hut. The shadow-like figure had disappeared. A pulse was pounding in his skull, and everything began to get dark.
He collapsed onto the cool, damp forest floor. His eyes slid shut and unconsciousness was slowly overcoming him. Before he slipped into nothingness, he felt the small book slide out of his pocket, followed by a ripping sound . . .
To Be Continued . . .
A/N: Yay, Chapter Three is finished! Now, please review! I only got one for the last chapter. Thanks much!
