Chapter VI: Secret Revealed
FD: Okay, this is kind of where the plot kicks in. Alara has to save Tala, but she has to make a choice; save him and lose her second life, or keep her life, but lose Tala? Decisions, decisions, but only I know what she does. So, keep in touch.
"Alara, are you crazy! You're going after Tala!" Gabriel yelled at her. Alara was running through the trees, Gabriel at her side, flying. "You could lose your life!"
Alara stopped abruptly, realizing the men who had taken Tala were gone. Where could they have gone? But what Gabriel said had made a lot of sense. Was she willing to lose her second chance just to save some boy? She shook the thought out of her head. There had to be some other way. A way for her to keep both.
"This is our destiny. We cannot change what fate holds in store for us…."
Alara sighed sadly, and then looked at Gabriel. "Gabriel, I need the coordinates of where they took Tala. Find him and tell him help is on the way," she demanded.
Gabriel looked at her, confused. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.
"I've never been more sure in my life. Tala means the world to me. If anything should happen to him, life isn't worth living," Alara told him. With a nod, he disappeared, and tears immediately formed in her eyes as she released her wings and took to the air.
The blackness covering Tala's eyes faded, but became a horrible blur of vision. He couldn't see. Where was he? He tried to move his arms, but couldn't. They were pinned behind him. His legs couldn't move either. In fact, he lost the feeling in both arms and legs. What happened? He shook his head, numbness filling his entire body. No longer warm, no longer cold. Nothing. No pain as the rope cut into his wrists and ankles.
"No use fighting, brat. We got you where we want you. Now it's time for our revenge," laughed a deep voice. Tala forced himself to look up. Those guys from the other night were before him. One, tall, a bit overweight, tossing a wooden bat from hand to hand, snickered down at him. One behind him had a metal pipe with bloodstains on it. That must have been what hit him. A couple others were laughing, waving chains and their fists in the air.
"Well, if it isn't the grease monkey gang. How ya'll doin'? Got so drunk you want to take it out all on me?" Tala joked. A fist collided with his gut, and pain surged through his body harshly. He gasped for air, but couldn't. Something red dripped to the ground from his mouth. He felt his hair against his face, matted with blood. His, obviously.
"Don't play games with us, brat. We want revenge on you after what you did to us the other night. That chick was so hot, she was comin' on to us, and then you jumped in. We were going to have fun with her," said the one with the pipe, waving it in Tala's face, more blood drops splattering his face. Tala groaned in pain.
"Heh heh, play games with you? Never," he teased. A fist collided with his face, and he spat up blood. He felt the blows several times before they got more violent.
"We'll leave you here so you can think about what you said. We got to find that chick, so we'll be back in an hour. When we get back, we'll really have some fun," said the leader of the gang, taking one last swing into Tala's gut before swinging the bat threateningly. Tala groaned in pain as the light dimmed and they disappeared.
What he couldn't figure out was how could he feel numb one moment, and then all this pain the next? Did they take a shot of morphine to him? Or something else? He allowed the blood bile coming up to exit, the side of his face hurting, his lungs collapsing. He wanted more than anything to die right there and then.
Suddenly, the room was filled with light. Did those morons come back? No, Tala looked up to realize that it wasn't one of the goons. It was a boy his age, if not, older. He had light dirty blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He looked like an older version of Jesse McCartney, but Jesse was blonder than him. Behind the boy was a pair of white feather wings. He approached Tala with a grace, giving Tala strength and warmth over his body. The pain disappeared, and was replaced with a heavenly feeling.
"It's okay, Tala. Everything will be fine. Help is on the way," the boy spoke. Then the light faded, as well as the boy. That gave Tala hope and strength. Maybe he will be alright. But was that real, or a dream?
An hour passed by, and immediately the gangsters returned, the stench of vomit and beer high in the air. Tala wanted more than anything to die as they closed the door to the room. He wanted more than anything to actually see the light of day shine through the darkness. He wanted more than anything for this to be over and to be in a field of white. To not actually have to breathe. As he felt and heard the swish of a fist in the air, he closed his eyes, but then heard a loud boom and a familiar voice yell at them. He opened his eyes and saw the girl from the other night staring coldly at them.
"Okay, I'm going to give you two options; one, you leave Tala alone and walk away and pretend nothing happened, or two, I beat the living hell out of you!" she yelled. A spark appeared in the silver orbs of her eyes, and a flame erupted from it. Tala was amazed by this, and something about this girl was so familiar. It was as if he had known her for a long time. But he couldn't remember.
"Heh. Well, lookee here, boys. Looks like the whore came back to play," said the leader. A temple throbbed in the girl's head as the word was spoken. Then she glared evilly at them.
"A whore? A whore! How dare you call a goddess a whore!" she yelled. Suddenly, Tala felt the cold and hard metal collide with his face, and he groaned, feeling blood fall from his face. He was now hyperventilating, and he couldn't stop.
"Tala!" the girl screamed. How'd she know his name when he had no idea what hers was! Again, a fist collided with his face, and then he heard a scream. He opened his eyes wider, and then saw the girl's head had fallen back and she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Wind violent, yet soft picked up around him, and he saw something white appear from the chest of the girl. The white became bigger, forming a figure. Pure white, like a ghost.
The figure became what looked like a ghostly figure of the girl with white feathery wings, like an angel. The figure flew with an amazing speed around the room, but Tala's attention was on the girl. She had suddenly changed. Her black hair was billowing elegantly and beautifully in the wind, even when it was wild. Her eyes had become beautiful, endlessly deep silver; her outfit had changed from black to blinding white, like a light trying to cover her body as much as it could. But what surprised him the most was a pair of blindingly white feather wings had sprouted from her back. She was staring at Tala with a beautiful gaze, her eyes ice cold and emotionless, and yet giving a beautiful look of utmost beauty and grace.
"Tala, I've wanted to protect you for as long as I could. But destiny serves a different purpose for us. So now, my identity is revealed. It's me, Tala. It's Alara," she spoke softly to him, and Tala gasped. He couldn't believe it. That girl that he had kissed the other night, this beautiful girl before him, the angel, was Alara!
"Even outside of the prison that we captivate ourselves in, we are not completely safe. It is destiny, it is fate, which we reach out to the ones we love. Do you understand, now, Tala? The reason why you are no longer a champion, the reason why you can never beat Kai. It is not because you are weak. It means that destiny has something else meant for you," she said calmly, and then he saw a tear fall from her cheek.
Just then, a blinding white light blinded Tala, and then when it vanished, he felt all pain vanish, he felt free, he felt lost in a perfect bliss. Then when it disappeared, Tala somehow fell to the ground, but Alara was still there, over him, a peaceful smile on her face, back to her normal self. Tala looked around and saw that all the thugs were unconscious, spread out across the floor. Tala looked at himself, all wounds gone, everything. He looked up at Alara, confused and happy.
"Alara, what…how…what the hell…." he couldn't find the right words. Then Alara just placed a finger over his lips to silence him.
"I'll tell you everything when we get out of here," she reassured. Tala nodded, and together they exit the building, leaving the thugs alone and unconscious. Later, though, Gabriel appeared and erased their memories. Only thing left was for Alara to come clean to Tala, the one that she loved more than anything in the world.
FD: That's all for now. No, it's not the end of the story. There's actually going to be a few more sequels where the true meaning of Alara's death is revealed, and what her destiny is. Anyway, I know that Tiky will love it. However, I need little Miss Tala's-True-Love to e-mail me with a little profile about herself because I want to put her in one of my fics if she wants me to. And it's going to be one of the sequels to this one. So, anyway, I'm goin' to work on the next chapter. So, peace!
