Chapter 17 – Diabolic
"What… did you do… to me?" Luz asked, immobilized in the floor and feeling the air leaving her lungs faster when she spoke.
"I'm just making sure you stay put while we talk." The man walked towards the window, looking at the city as he spoke. "Tell me, little human, why are you doing this? You know, the whole 'vigilante' thing."
"I…" Luz felt almost incapable of breathing now, her body feeling heavier as time passed.
"Apologies. Forgot you were just a little creature." The emperor waved his hand and the pressure disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, finally letting her breath again. "Now, please, answer my question."
"You…" She took a couple deep breaths and then thought that it would be best to just play along for now, at least until she could see an opportunity to escape. "I want justice."
"Very vague. Care to elaborate?" He went to sit at the chair again, looking at her directly.
"I know what feeling powerless is like. Like no one will ever help you because they're afraid. Bad guys get away with whatever they want and no one dares to stand up to them. I just want bad guys to get what they deserve." She finally felt strong enough to sit on the floor while massaging her belly that had been almost crushed a few minutes ago.
"And what does it mean to be a bad guy? Where do you draw the line? Let's put this situation as an example: I just killed this guy, but this guy killed like a hundred or more, and those guys probably killed thousands, if you take into consideration their line of business. Who's the bad guy here and what would a good guy do?" She could swear she heard him pant at the end of his sentence, but didn't give it much thought. Instead, she considered what to answer.
"Good guys don't kill. You should have gathered enough evidence and take it to the police so that they could have arrested him." Luz stood up and was about to sit at the bed until she saw the pool of blood on it. She started wondering where the body was.
"If that's what you think, why didn't you join the police? Isn't that what they do? What is it that you can do that they don't? Right. You can hurt people. Break bones, punch faces and all that hard boiled hero stuff. It is very heroic. Especially when you see the bad guys in the hospital."
"I see what you're trying to say, but it's not the same as killing them."
"What if I told you that one of the guys you beat the other night will never walk again? No one will give him a job now and he still has to feed his family. Who's the bad guy, really?" Her brow furrowed in worry, thinking about that and trying to remember if she had really gone too far that night.
"That's impossible… I don't… I didn't go all out on anyone. I never do." The witch laughed softly.
"Of course you don't. That didn't happen, you're right but, what if it ends up happening one day? You punch a guy in the face, he falls and then suffers brain damage. Are you still a hero after that?" To be completely honest, she didn't have an answer for that, so she could just stay still and think about it for a while. "You see, little owlet, what makes you good or bad is not the action in question, but the result of said action. Who cares about a criminal with brain damage if he's never going to put anyone else's life in danger? What if he never walks again? He should have thought of that before committing a crime, right? If you save lives, why is it bad to take some?"
"No, that's…" He interrupted her before she could finish.
"I get it. You have been taught the opposite. I understand you now. I've been reading your mind since you stepped in this room. The bullying, your mother always absent due to her job, your training with Edalyn, your nights reading comic books to escape this cruel world for a moment. No wonder you think the way you do but, you do have to ask yourself: is that really the best way to do things? I have an offer for you, little human. I see your potential and I can tell you will be very strong. I want the exact same thing you want: Justice. So, why don't you join me and we can make this world a better place? We can bring demons back, magic available for everyone, true change for the world."
"I can't… Killing is bad and…" She looked around the room to find the best way to escape before he could use his weird power on her again, but she didn't come up with something.
"If you want to go, you may leave, but I'll keep going after you like this until you give me a really good reason not to join me. Next time, I might go visit your friend at the veterinary clinic or the little neighbor you're dating. You might be more willing to join me if they open your eyes." Her body went stiff at his words and the implication. It was an obvious threat and, after witnessing how he had defeated her without even moving from his chair, the threat was pretty serious and scary.
Through her fear, she felt like she needed to do something but, what could she do against that immense power of him? She would end up on the floor before she even got close enough to punch… that was it! She had a plan now!
"Okay… let's say I join you. What's next?" She approached the Emperor slowly, getting ready to jump back if she needed it.
"The next thing would be…" He suddenly stood up and took her by the neck, waving his free hand in a circle and tightening his grip a lot more after he did so. "To try and make you smarter." The witch threw her across the room, making her back and head smack loudly against the wall. "I had just told you I was reading your mind and yet you try and use that old 'make him think I'll do what he wants and then punch him' thing. You're just indoctrinated. You don't know why you think the way you think. I want to offer you a new perspective. A real one. Yet, you're not willing to even consider it." Luz looked at him with her vision blurred by the impact she took on her head and tried to crawl towards the door without even thinking about it, as if her body acted on its own. She didn't get too far before the mysterious wave hit her again and locked her in place. "I'm still talking to you, rude girl." He got closer to her and took her mask off, throwing it to the floor and pulling her by the hair, making her look at him. "I'll give you a week to think things through. If you don't join me by next Monday afternoon, I'll tell the whole world your identity."
"No!" A hurtful moan escaped her mouth as soon as she attempted to move.
"Yes I will. And not only that, I will also share the fact that Edalyn was the first one to carry this hero name of yours." Her whole body tensed in pain and anger as the man chuckled, as if enjoying her pain.
Suddenly, she felt her body extremely light again and the hand pulling her hair let her go. The sensations fought against her eyes, that showed her the man was still there doing the same thing. At the blink of an eye, she was suddenly heavy again and the pain on her scalp was there too.
"What did you just do, little human?" The man seemed surprised for a second too. "Ah, I see, this is…" Before he could finish, the same sensation of lightness overcame her.
She took a deep breath in the instant she felt free and closed her eyes for a second. Once she opened her eyes again, she was falling down from the ceiling to the floor but, instead of hitting the floor, she kept falling for a few seconds with her head moving everywhere as if trying to make sense of the situation.
Finally, after falling for over thirteen floors, she fell on top of a bed, breaking the box under it and feeling her whole body in pain.
After taking a couple deep breaths, she stood up quickly as a spring and looked everywhere around the room trying to find the Emperor, but there was no one else in the room.
Feeling safer, she let herself fall to the bed again, her whole body aching and her mind messed up. She didn't believe in what that witch told her, but it did feel like she had a few things to consider now. Especially the threat at the end.
"That floor is supposed to be empty, that's why I called you as soon as they told me a fight was happening there, officer." She heard someone talking outside of the room she was. The police was here and she needed to get out as soon as possible.
Luz stood up again and felt dizzy for a second. Something started to get out of her nose and she put her hand on it, finding it was blood coming out.
Before she could even clean that up, the window on the room shattered to pieces and her mask flew from outside towards her. She took it before it hit her face and then looked at the window, expecting the Emperor to come through it, but nothing else happened, just a knock on the door that startled her.
Putting her mask on again, she looked outside the window to find she was now on the second floor, so she jumped out of the window and tried to get a grip on the lower floor's window, but a sudden dizziness prevented her from doing so and she fell straight on her back to the floor, huffing loudly as she hit the sidewalk.
"You there! Stand up and show me your hands!" With the little bit of energy she had left, she turned her head towards the voice and saw a man with a gun pointing at her, a police car behind him. "Oh, shit! The owl lady!" Growling in pain, she tried to stand up, her whole body feeling broken, especially after that fall. She was about to fall on the floor until a pair of hands helped her stand still. She looked to the person who held her and saw a man she recognized from the force. It was none other than the newly promoted Sergeant, Edric Blight. "Quickly, let's get you out of here." Confusion overtook her for a second while he helped her stand up and walk towards an alley next to the hotel. "Here's sergeant Edric. I'm pursuing a suspect on foot that is going towards the fifth street and the elbow. Require assistance." He let her go once they both were hiding behind a trash container and she fell immediately to the floor, looking at him with curiosity.
"You're sending officers to find a ghost, why?" The sergeant put his hand on her mouth and signaled for her to shut up as the police car passed by the alley and turned on the siren.
"I just want to talk to you alone. Can't a guy meet his childhood hero in peace?" He smiled at her and she couldn't help but chuckle at the situation she was in. Not long ago, she had investigated the Blight detectives thinking they were crooked cops and now, Edric Blight just saved her from getting arrested.
Tonight would certainly go down as the weirdest night she had ever had in her life.
"That…" Emira threw up again on the toilet, raising her head slowly after she did. "Viney!" Again, she lowered her head to throw up and then coughed loudly. "That was my radio, right? It was Edric. What did he say?" And again, she threw up.
"It was. He was in the hotel I was supposed to go with the Owl Lady." Viney entered the bathroom with the radio on one hand and a glass of water in the other.
"Everything…" She lowered her head to throw up again but nothing came out so she just coughed. "Okay?"
"Better than here, apparently." The shorter girl left the radio on the floor as she kneeled to clean Em's mouth with a piece of toilet paper while handing her the glass of water. "I think the owl lady did a number on those goons. He's going after one." The green haired witch nodded while looking at her girlfriend and then gagged again. "Easy. Drink some water, okay? I'm gonna call your captain right now and tell her there's no way you'll show up to work tomorrow."
"Wait!" She took the brunette's hand as hard as she could before she could get out of the bathroom. "Don't! I'll go to work tomorrow! I have to!" Taking a deep breath, she took the glass of water and drank it in one gulp. "See? I'm okay!"
"You're clearly not okay." Viney looked at her with a hand on her hip and an amused look on her face.
"I am." She stood up as quickly as she could, feeling dizzy as she did. "See?" Unable to hold it back, she fell to her knees and threw up again.
"See? I'm gonna call Lilith. Don't worry, I won't tell her you're drunk. I'll just tell her you have food poisoning or something." Again, she stopped her girlfriend before she could do as she said.
"No! I can go to work with a hungover!" For a few seconds, the shorter girl looked at her with worry on her eyes and then she kneeled too.
"Why? I didn't know you loved your job so much? Why are you afraid of losing a day? Is it because you just made it to lieutenant? It's that why you drank so much? Do you feel like the stress of this job is too much?" The brunette took a piece of paper and wiped her girlfriend's face again with care, throwing the paper to the toilet and then caressing her cheek softly.
"I don't love my job. I actually just took it to piss off my mom. And yeah, I'm stressed because of this Raventhorne case and the Amity situation, but also, I want to catch this Emperor guy for you." Viney's face warmed up with a little smile and a soft blush.
"Well, thank you, but you're not going to accomplish that by working with a huge headache and dehydration tomorrow. You don't have to push yourself so hard for me. What if it takes us an extra day to catch this guy? I don't see the problem. But I do see the problem on you working till you're dead so, I'm gonna bring you another glass of water now that you seem a lot calmer, you're going to take a quick shower, drink some tea and then sleep, alright?" Em's heart raced on her chest as she looked at her girlfriend. The most beautiful girl she had ever seen, no doubt.
"Odalia, Lilith, thank you for coming with such short notice. I have set in motion the final part of this plan tonight." The three witches sat in a huge living room with expensive furniture, both women looking at the man with different expressions; fear and happiness.
"So, the human is joining us?" Odalia asked, taking a sip from a cup of tea she had on her hands.
"Not yet. She'll answer in a week. Subsection C has come into play, Odalia, I want you to make preparations for it." The man took off his mask and left it on the coffee table between him and the other two witches.
"Understood. I'll make sure everything is ready." The green haired woman spoke with a faint of fear on her voice. The Emperor's face, his real face, always had an effect on her.
"Same goes for you Lilith. I want your officers ready for whatever the outcome might be. We're so close to the day of unity. Nothing will stop us now." Lilith looked at the floor with worry.
"Of course, Emperor. Everything will be ready." The dark haired witch closed her eyes for a couple seconds as she breathed deeply, feeling uncomfortable.
"Excellent. Now, Odalia, did you speak to your daughter as planned?" Lilith turned to look at the man quickly. She didn't know they had planned that and it worried her immensely.
"I did. I really think she will join us. I didn't tell her I can give her magic, but I will eventually. I plan on talking to her again soon. Also, she knows now that Lilith is Raventhorne, as planned."
"What!?" Lilith raised her voice with worry, looking from the man to the woman, as if asking for an explanation.
"You have been like a mentor to her for a long while. Knowing that you're on our side helps to bring her closer to us." The emperor answered casually. "Don't worry. That girl is not an idiot, I can tell. Talk to her tomorrow if you want. I don't think she will go around telling everyone about you."
"Yeah… she's not an idiot…" "But I am…" The captain thought as she heard the other two witches talking about the remaining parts of the plan.
At least she could be glad about one thing and it was the fact that this suffering was about to end. Just a couple weeks and that's it. She could endure it, right? After all, she had been doing so for decades now.
As long as her family was safe and no one else died, everything was going to be okay…
Guess who's back? Back again...
Yeah... that's why I don't write comedy.
Anyway. This chapter ends the second arch of this story. I know that the moral conflict I set up here is kind of messed up, but I think the way it will get solved is going to be nice (or, at least, I hope so).
Not much to say for the notes this time. Things moved slowly so that we could have this "shocking" end for the second arch, hahahaha.
But yeah; now that Luz is getting her magic ('coz that's what the weird thing that happened was, in case you didn't want to assume) and Amity is aware of almost everything, we can move forward to end the story. So, get ready for a few characters dying and a not so happy ending.
Oh, I almost forgot: I've read many stories that are pretty hardcore and they always have some warnings at the start of the chapter. I never thought it would be necessary for this story since the M rating already lets you know that things are gonna get messy some times but, if you feel like I need to add the warnings, let me know.
And that would be all. See ya'!
