--Eternal: Chapter Four--
Amalthea stood there with an angry look upon her face. Her eyes were so cold and lifeless as she continued to look at us. While slightly waving her staff a bit, she muttered an incantation in an unknown language. Suddenly, Trowa & I were surrounded in a white flame; a few moments later, we were fully clothed. Amalthea, however, remained silent. Finally, she spoke:
"Maybe you misunderstood me. I said that I am the sister of a vampire named Lemar. Now surely, this name rings a bell, hmm?"
"L-Lemar!" I cried. "So, the reason why you did all this was - "
"To get revenge!" Amalthea shouted. "When I found out that you killed my brother, I was beyond enraged. How could you two be so damn happy while I am miserable!" For a moment, it seemed as if she was going to cry. Looking at us, she continued:
"So, I followed you in the shadows for quite some time. Once I was able to get an idea of what you looked like, I disguised myself as a human & I 'fixed' that stupid paper to make it look like you and that cursed woman were the parents of sweet Hikaru Winner. My plan to ruin your lives nearly worked, but you two just had to get back together!" I stood in front of Trowa and said:
"You have to understand something right now. I didn't kill Lemar for any sort of amusement. He threatened to kill the both of us. If I hadn't - "
"IF YOU HADN'T KILLED HIM, I WOULD STILL HAVE A BROTHER!" Amalthea angrily yelled, attacking us with dark orbs of unholy light. Trowa & I quickly fought those off, but it seems she had other ideas on her mind. Instead of getting angry, she looked rather calm.
"Let's try to make things a little interesting. How would you care for a wager?" Amalthea asked with a wicked smirk.
I quickly raised an eyebrow & asked, "What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just a game of sorts," she answered. "You and I - and I don't mean your sissy little loveslave - will fight each other. If you win, I'll leave you two alone so you can live happily ever after. But if I win..."
"You'll kill me, right?" I said.
Amalthea nodded. "And, as a bonus, I won't kill them either."
As I was to ask what she meant, Amalthea pointed her staff towards the ceiling. A red circle appeared before her & revealed what first appeared as shadows of sorts. I gasped in horror as I saw WuFei, Heero, and Duo bound in bloodied chains in a dark room.
"These fools are being tortured by their inner nightmares. Soon they will sucumb to them & become mine for the rest of their pathetic lives," she added. "So, what do you say?"
I didn't care what the consequences were. I had to do this for Trowa & for my friends. With my body slightly shaking in fear, I agreed to her terms. Amalthea destroyed the display & closed her eyes; behind her, another portal appeared. She opened her eyes and motioned for me to follow her, then dissapeared. I went towards the portal, but something literally held me back: Trowa was grabbing my hand pretty tightly & didn't want to let go.
"Trowa," I said without turning around, "you know I can't just let all of you die. Please, let me go."
"I just wanted to do something before you leave," he replied. Letting go of my hand, he went in front of me & kissed me tenderly. It seemed to last forever, but Trowa soon pulled back, hugged me, and let me go. As I went inside the portal, I heard the last of Trowa's voice:
"Be careful, koibito."
Darkness surrounded me. I couldn't see a damn thing for what seemed like hours; finally, a ray of light quickly approached & I was engulfed in the light, which was so bright that I had to shut my eyes. Suddenly, I heard Amalthea's voice:
"We're here, you damn mortal. Open your eyes and look upon the place where you will die!"
Slowly, I opened my eyes & couldn't believe what I saw: there were tall, shimmering windows & dark red draperies with a full moon giving the entire place an erie glow. I knew exactly where we were.
"This - This is Lemar's house!" I cried.
"Exactly," Amalthea said. Her staff was now gone, but a dark aura surrounded her and her fists were clinched tightly. "Now, Quatre Rabera Winner, prepare to die!" She ran toward me & quickly vanished. Just as I was preparing to defend myself, I felt a sharp pain in my back: Amalthea had managed to attack me from behind.
"Did I happen to mention that I can teleport?" she said & laughed as she attacked me again with those dark orbs. Although I managed to fend off some of them, the rest relentlestly pounded into me. I screamed as pain shot all through my body as I heard her laughing in happiness.
"This is the end!" she cried as I was bound by some sort of shadow power. I tried desprately to move, but it was no use; the darkness had control over me.
Amalthea smirked as she walked over towards me; her eyes gleamed in amusement as she suddenly made a short sword appear in her hands.
"I would have done this long ago if I knew it was going to be so easy," she whispered as she pressed the blade against my cheek. Blood began to trickle down my face and as much as I wanted to say something, I was just too weak to do anything. However, I did manage to utter something:
"...orry."
"Um, what did you just say?"
"S-Sorry...for...Lemar. I wish...to...show you...what - "
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" Raising her sword, Amalthea plunged it toward my heart. All I could do was close my eyes & expect more pain. But I felt nothing & I heard nothing but a sharp gasp & the sound of metal falling to the ground.
"What sort of trickery is this!" Amalthea cried.
Confused, I opened up my eyes & saw a large image of Lemar standing by me, trying to convince me of becoming a vampire. 'Am I projecting my memories?' I thought. The "mirror" must have read my thoughts, because it quickly changed over to where I found Lemar & Trowa sleeping together. Still wondering why it was showing all of this, I happened to glanced up at Amalthea.
Tears of blood were trickling down her face as she whispered, "Is this the brother I knew?"
End of Chapter Four