Chapter 13: Stuck

The team returned with no luck. They'd searched high and low, uptown to downtown but Krystal was nowhere to be found. Antauri had been awake long before they returned.

"Sorry Antauri, we couldn't find anything." Otto apologized solemnly.

"You tried. That's the best anyone can ask for" Antauri responded.

"That's not okay. You're dying and you only have who knows how long to live," said Chiro.

Antauri looked at him with soft eyes.

"How can you be so calm?"

"I accept it."

"You're giving up?"

"I never said I was giving up. I'm simply accepting the fact that I may die." (coughliarcough)

Just then the hyperforce received a transmission. Gibson put it through.

"Hello monkey team." It was Krystal. "Nice to see you again."

Antauri ignored her.

"What do you want?" asked Nova.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Then whydid you call us?" Gibson inquired.

"Just thought I'd tell you that blacky over there only has three days to live." She said motioning to Antauri.

This caught his attention.

"And don't bother looking for me because I do not have or know what the cure is, if there even is one. So, good luck finding it. You'll need it." With that, the transmission ended.

Everyone was silent. Antauri no longer looked calm and content.

"Antauri…" Nova said cautiously.

He didn't reply, just departed the room, leaving a cold feeling behind. He didn't think it'd be over that soon. A mere three days, that's all he had. Somehow he knew that those three days would be the worst of his life.

He could hear them talking quietly outside his door.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Just give him some time,"

Truthfully, he hadn't accepted that he was going to die. He couldn't accept it. A black cloud loomed over him the rest of the day. Antauri did come out of his room but he avoided saying anything to the rest of the team unless they said something to him unrelated to Krystal, the number three, or death. Antauri sat in a corner of his dark, depressing room feeling nothing but misery and hate. He would've liked nothing more than to punch Krystal's face in, but even if he could, it wouldn't make a difference. He heard a knock at his door.

"Come in," he said, knowing whoever it was would come in anyway. It was Sparx. He looked a little creeped out. Since Antauri was hidden in the dark, all Sparx could see was two glowing red eyes.

"Why's it so dark in here?" he asked not really expecting an answer, nor did he receive one. "Okay, what's wrong?"

"What makes you think something is wrong?"

"For one thing you're moping. You don't mope. Is it because you're dying?"

He cringed when Sparx said that. "Not entirely,"

Sparx noticed his mistake "Sorry. So, what else is wrong?"

He didn't tell him. It had to do with the curse but he didn't think it was a good time to tell anyone about it. Sparx could see he wasn't willing to tell him what was the matter. The hurt that the hyperforce had seen in his eyes before was back. Sparx sensed he just wanted to be alone. He didn't want to bother him anymore so he got up and left, feeling bad for Antauri. Sparx returned to the main room to find books scattered everywhere. The monkey team was looking for a remedy.

"What are you guys doing?" he asked picking up one of the books

"What does it look like we're doing?" Nova answered, searching the Internet.

"Hey, I think I found something." Announced Chiro.

They rushed over to him. Chiro pointed to a small paragraph in an ancient book. Nova read over his shoulder.

"You've got to be kidding me," she exclaimed.

Night was coming. Something Antauri had learned to dread. There was no doubt in his mind that Krystal would let his demon take over. The last thing he needed was to wake up knowing he'd just killed someone. So he did the only thing he could think of. Antauri walked casually down the hall avoiding the eyes of his comrades. He approached Otto's room, looked around cautiously and stepped in. To his satisfaction, he found a pile of junk Otto was going to use later. He dug through the pile and found a couple of rusted chains and some steel parts. Antauri tested the chains to see if they'd be strong enough. They were. He returned to his room, unseen by the others, and started turning the parts into something of more use, shackles. He was going to chain himself to the wall. He'd read on how to make things like that, but he never thought he'd put that skill to use. Of course, Antauri had made a key and a keyhole. He didn't plan on being stuck to a wall for the rest of his life. Surprisingly, this did not take very long. It was almost dark when he'd finished. He restrained his arms and legs with just seconds left. As he predicted, the demon did take over. The shackles worked. But what Antauri didn't know was that if the demon can't kill, it wouldn't go away. He'd be stuck in demon form.
Note: It seems like things in this story are just going to get worse and worse, but they'll get better...eventually. I couldn't think of a better chapter title so I'll just keep this one for now. Well that's it for now, please review.