I noticed it in the last chapter, but it doesn't look like any of you did. If anyone noticed the plot hole in ROOTS: THE SECOND NIGHT, props to them. That's what I get for writing as fast and late as I was. Oh, well. Also, if you didn't see the plot hole, don't go looking for it. Leave the story as it was when you first read it.
BLOODLINES: THE THIRD DAY
Ly sat listlessly on the Teensie's ship as it slowly sailed the winds above the world. The world that Rayman was on—the world that other girl was on.
Rayman, Ly wondered. Just where are you? Do you know that the girl you're with tried to kill me? Do you…do you care? Ly's thoughts began to spiral wildly.
Of course not, a voice inside her said. After all, you turned your back on him. You didn't save him; you didn't even try. As a matter of fact, you did just the opposite when he came back. No, Ly, even if he did know, he wouldn't care.
"And you know what?" a voice said beside Ly. Ly turned sharply, startled, and saw, leaning on the edge of the ship's railing, her. Ly was too stunned to move.
"How…how did you get on this ship?" Ly asked, trying to hide her fear. "The Teensies enveloped this thing in a magical barrier that even Frank couldn't get through!" The girl smiled. It was an innocent, cheerful, and surprisingly cute smile, but the sight of it chilled Ly to the bone.
"Rayman…last night he killed you," she giggled lightly. The bandage around her right eye was slowly developing a bloodstain. "You'd be impressed at how strong he's gotten. He was able to catch your strongest fireball, and he used its power to punch right through you. Yes, he'd be strong enough to defeat him alone—if only he were playing for the right team." Tendrils of darkness began coming out of the girl as blood began trickling out from her bandage.
"But," the girl began walking toward Ly slowly, "what about you? Rayman has chosen the darkness over the light, although he doesn't know it yet. But you, Ly"—the girl put a hand to Ly's head, and Ly felt an overwhelming force rush through her—"yes…I can see it even now; the shadows licking away at the edges of your heart and mind. Rayman may have been tricked into fighting against the light rather than for it, but you…you are the interesting one. The one created from light, but who willingly chose the darkness. When he came back, you tried to repress it, even if it was just for him—but what will you do now that he has chosen the darkness as well? Will you fight the only reason you've stayed on this side?"
"You're wrong," Ly found that she had a splitting headache as she said this, "I didn't choose the darkness, and Rayman never would!"
"No," the girl agreed, "no, you didn't. It chose you—isn't that right? It sensed your potential, Ly, and it chose you. And now, I'm going to make sure it chose wisely." The darkness around the girl intensified, along with Ly's headache. Ly suddenly saw that she was standing on a tower made of black metal. She turned, and saw Rayman next to her, smiling. She smiled back, and then turned and saw Mr. Dark tied to a small pillar rising up near them. His black blood was draining into a small fountain, filling it. Rayman turned and began to walk to the fountain in slow motion. Ly followed without thinking. When he reached the fountain, Rayman lowered in his cupped hands, scooping out some of Mr. Dark's blood. Ly did so, too. Rayman held his hands up and began to drink. Ly did so as well, watching as Rayman's skin began to lighten to an unearthly gray, while his clothes turned black. Ly drank tentatively at first, but then felt a rush of power as she drank the tasteless liquid. It felt good—no, better than good—it felt right, as if she deserved this power. She wanted more. She wanted it all. Ly ran over to the fountain and plunged her head in, gulping in the blood of Mr. Dark as if it were air. Then, though, something strange happened. There was a little pinprick of white at the very center of the dark blood. It hurt to look at, and it had started to grow. Ly squinted angrily, trying to use her hand to scrub away the light, but it kept growing. Soon, it entered her mouth. It tasted vile, posionous. Ly coughed out black bubbles, gagging on the light that continued to grow and surround her. As everything went white, Ly screamed.
The girl winced as she was blown across the deck of the ship by the sudden burst of light from Ly.
"Why do you repress it?" She muttered angrily. "Why fight the power inside of you?"
"That's not power!" Ly retorted, panting. "I'm not giving into it. No matter how much you try to increase the shadows in me, the light—my light—will always push them back!"
"Hmm," the girl gave a sinister smile. "If only you had not been there to see him alive…Perhaps if you believe you'd lost everything, you'd have let the darkness consume you." Ly grimaced.
"Like I'd believe you if you told me anything!" she shot back. The girl simply smiled in reply.
"I'll take my leave," she said. "Rayman is at the Land of the Livid Dead, if you were looking for a heading. Ah, but"—she shot a small needle of darkness below deck—"you might have some trouble getting there. We'll see each other again. Goodbye." And then she was gone.
Ly looked inquisitively at the floor, and inhaled slowly. She moved back to the railing, resting her arms on it again. Sighing, Ly stared at the clouds passing around the ship, Niehr's words picking at the edges of her mind. Despite this, she was fully aware of Raymond's footsteps as he appeared behind her. Ly closed her eyes and grimaced.
"Hey," he said, approaching her. Ly stood up.
"Go away," she said, her eyes fixed on the clouds. Raymond's footsteps stopped.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Why can't you leave me alone, Raymond?" Ly spun around, her voice harsh. "What makes you think that after what you did to me I'd ever want to see you again?"
"I—I didn't know-" Raymond stammered.
"Raymond, I don't care!" Ly spat. "What you did to me, I've never been able to fix! I can't even trust myself anymore because of you. And"—she sank to her knees—"no matter how much time passes, I'll never be normal." Raymond looked away.
"Check the engine," he growled eventually. "We have a problem." Turning away completely, he quickly disappeared below deck.
Ly was surprised when she went to the engine room to find that the Teensies had put up a barrier around the engine.
"Who are we keeping out?" she asked one of them.
"What are we keeping in," he corrected, gesturing to the engine. Ly took a closer look at the engine and saw a dark mass behind it. As she approached, a single, yellow eye appeared. The pupil swirled around the edges sickeningly for a moment, then centered, looking at Ly. The eye was covered by the swirling mass, which then detached from the wall and began taking a humanoid shape. As it built upon itself, occasionally toppling over in the process, it began to resemble a familiar foe.
"Not him…" a younger Teensie begged, his voice cracking. "Anyone but him…" Ly thought briefly of attempting to soothe him, but then saw what everyone else had already recognized—the mass had shaped itself as Mr. Dark.
Mr. Dark stepped forward, leaving eerie black ooze behind with each step (this black ooze quickly raced after him and jumped back onto his body, however).
"Through the sword-bearer shall I be reborn," he told Ly cryptically, his voice sounding as if he was somehow gargling water while he spoke. "Thank you, Ly, for bringing him to me again—thank you…for resurrecting me."
His message delivered, Mr. Dark suddenly groaned and doubled over. His body returned to being a featureless mass, which proceeded to jump onto the engine…and explode.
Naturally, the ship only floated for mere seconds more before suddenly nose-diving down.
"What do we do?" cried a Teensie. Ly was just about to suggest a plan when the ship hit the ground.
Pain. That was all that woke her up. In some ways, Ly believed the only reason she hadn't died in the crash was because the pain was too great for her to ignore. She wasn't just thinking about physical pain, even if her entire body was racked with it; no, Ly was thinking about the true pain…the pain of losing Globox, the pain of watching Rayman die, the pain of listening to herself threatening to kill him when he came back, the pain of listening to that girl remind Ly of what she really was, and, most recently, the pain of possibly bringing back the greatest evil her world had ever known. So much pain.
Groaning, Ly opened her eyes and removed the wood currently cutting into her palms and chest. She stood up, surveying the destruction of the ship the Teensies had spent so much time on. Amongst the splintered wood and fire lay shards of metal and glass, in which Ly could see her face—bruised, cut, and bloody, yet completely expressionless. On the inside, Ly was screaming at herself to cry, to shout in anger, to do something that told her that she felt sorry for the Teensies—the Teensies whose corpses were sure to be scattered around here—and yet nothing came. Try as she might, Ly couldn't cry. Were their lives really that insignificant to her? Ly suddenly realized that she'd never even asked them for their names. She'd never cared.
A rock hit the back of Ly's head. She spun around, and saw the young Teensie from before.
"Monster," he shook, covered in blood—not all of it was his own. "How could you bring him back? Why did you? What are you gaining out of all this violence?"
"Violence?" Ly asked.
"Don't act like you don't know!" the Teensie spat, throwing another rock. This one was larger, sharper—Ly could feel another cut appear on her face as it hit. "You killed those Fairies at the Council! I didn't want to believe it, but now…it was you the whole time!" Ly suddenly remembered the two Fairies in the chamber of the heart, Stasy and Alys. Their bodies were still there—that girl must've become the one with glasses again and spread the rumor that it had been Ly's doing…which, in truth, it was. That girl had probably left out what the Fairies were really up to.
"I'm not going to let you kill any more of us…" the Teensie growled, summoning up some sort of magic orb. "You're going to die right here—in the destruction you caused. It's almost…poetic." He fired the orb. As it came, thoughts raced through Ly's mind. They became simpler and simpler, narrowing down to one base thought.
When Ly opened her eyes, the orb was gone. The Teensie was on the ground, his breath ragged. As Ly approached, she could see it…the remains of the black fireball she'd thrown, burning away at the Teensie's body. Somewhere, someone was laughing. Ly turned wearily and saw black droplets coming together—forming the black mass from before.
This time however, they made the girl. That girl.
"Yes, Ly," she laughed. "You've finally accepted your fate. No…'accepted' is the wrong word. 'Embraced' does it justice." She came closer to Ly. "I always knew you had it in you. You just needed to give in to the power. To accept the gift. Now that you have"—she suddenly leapt back to where she'd first appeared—"I'm done with you."
"Where's…" Ly panted. "Where's Raymond?"
"Raymond is where he needs to be to make everything go as needed," the girl replied. "Do not concern yourself with that waste of space. After all…intermission is ending, and he's heading into his final act very soon"—the girl caught Ly's expression—"oh don't worry. You won't do it. That is…unless you want to…?" Ly held Niehr's gaze firmly.
"I see," Niehr frowned playfully. "Thought I would ask—you have been very surprising recently, so my prediction could've been off. But very well…things will go on as planned. Well, Ly, I'm afraid the sun's setting, so I must take my leave. I'll be keeping a close eye on how you progress, dear girl—I can't wait to see how the darkness inside of you festers. Ah, yes—you've reached your destination…welcome to the Land of the Livid Dead." She disappeared, but her laughter remained.
Ly looked at the Teensie, black fire consuming his body.
"No…" she whispered. "No, no, no, no, no!" Ly screamed the word into the air, shooting fireballs everywhere. But no matter what she did, every one of them was made with black fire. Sinking to her knees, Ly finally began to cry.
So sorry for the delay—I'm really backed up with summer school (for all of you thinking I failed a class, I DIDN'T—I'm doing this to make room for stuff in my schedule). I kinda forgot I still had this going, too, so there's that. And to top it all off, I lost my flash drive that my stories were on, so I had to go find the backup drive and work off of that. Right, anyway, The Deceased. Well, this is exciting. Not only do we learn that Ly is very much alive, but also get to see her turn evil—ha ha, just kidding. No, I will tell you right now that I'm not going to make Ly evil in this story. However, can you say "future plot point"? Right, well, I have some things planned for Raymond, and I might deviate from the pattern to give him his own chapter. This is because I want to show you what happens, and most certainly NOT because I have no idea what I'm going to do with Rayman and Niehr, who's quickly becoming my favorite character to work with in this story. Anyway, that's all for now, because I still have work to do.
CHZL