Daryl soon learned that bringing the umbrella was pointless.
The storm had come to a complete and abrupt stop, save for the sky still looking a bit intimidating as grey clouds continued to loom in the aftermath. He trudged on through the mud and dusty darkness towards the beach, squinting through his glasses to see if he couldn't get a better view of his path. Of course he knew where he was going, with what little vision he had in the dark, but Daryl was so used to being awake and walking about at this hour that his eyes had adjusted to darkness somewhat, however the scientist was indeed aging and that gave his sight in general a setback.
He began to wonder who else was out at this hour and, inevitably, began to think about him as well. He cursed his drifting focus, it was a quality about himself that had led to a multitude of failures.
Vesta had swore that the man was still alive and well, but… there was always that deep paranoia within the scientist throughout his years away from the Valley that something had happened, whether his love had gotten sick, or hurt or was simply lonely- then again he might have mistaken paranoid suspicion for hope. Hope that his partner wasn't doing very well without Daryl just as Daryl wasn't doing very well without him. He hated himself for such cruel wishes.
The coast was still beautiful, even after a monstrous storm. The sky was clouded but that one bright red star that no one could quite figure out still hung suspended, shining brightly in the otherwise colorless, cloudy beyond. Daryl remembered not even noticing the glimmering crimson star until he had pointed it out to him.
The folded umbrella in his fist, he used his free hand to adjust his glasses as an incredibly short, feeble looking figure appeared in the distance as the scientist moved in closer to the beach.
Another close friend of his, he realized as he walked closer. But the last time he had seen him, he didn't look like this-so terribly small and aged- and he had a nearly identical figure beside him nearly all the time.
Kasey looked worn, tired, drained, and well, old. He still had the same pair of overalls on, but they were falling off of him, evidence that the elderly man had lost a great and unhealthy amount of weight.
"Good evening." Daryl said to the back of the sitting figure. Kasey didn't even turn around. "Welcome back." he replied flatly and gruffly.
"Thanks. Where's your brother?" he already knew the answer, but you could never be sure.
"Dead." was all the twin said.
"My condolences." Daryl said softly, trying to pass on some sympathy to the feeble old man.
Though an awkward silence was in order here, Kasey wasted no time saying what was next. "That makes eight."
Daryl squinted at him. "Eight?"
"Jack, Ramona, Takakura, Sebastion, Nina, Galen, Grant, and Patrick makes eight deaths in the Valley since I've been here." The way Kasey just rolled the names of the ones passed on like it were a list of groceries was a tad frightening.
Daryl blinked at the list. Jack, he knew, Ramona and Sebastion and Nina, he knew, Takakura and Galen were a given and Patrick was a recent discovery but… Grant?
"How did Kate's father die?"
Kasey took a long thoughtful pause before answering. "Suicide."
Daryl couldn't believe his ears- suicide? He knew the man was often pretty down after his wife left, but how low could he have possibly gone? Then again, Daryl hadn't even spoken to him once…
"In case your wondering, and I know you are," Kasey released a great cough before continuing, yet another sign that his health was failing him. "He found his daughter in bed with some guy. Older guy. I guess he just couldn't take it anymore and killed himself."
The scientist was still quite confused. "But Kate is a young adult by now, he needs to give her some sort of freedom."
The pyrotechnic shook his head. "This was six years ago. She was fourteen when this happened."
Daryl just wanted to lay down and slip out of consciousness. This was unreal. The Valley, the beautiful Valley that held no wrong-doing, was at one point the home of a sexually active pre-teen and a suicidal father.
Kasey had yet to turn and face him until this point. "You've come to see your boyfriend, huh?"
He took a moment to look at how sullen and colorless Kasey's eyes had become before answering. "Yes."
The slightest hint of emotion glinted across his eyes for a millisecond before he turned to the ocean again. "It's late, but he doesn't sleep much anyhow." the twin murmured. Daryl nodded, though Kasey couldn't see it.
"I know. It's kind of how we met." The memory of walking around town grumbling to himself at three in the morning and finding him by the lake was still fresh, though old.
"He's still the same." Kasey said. And that was all the man could say before he stood slowly and painfully. Daryl felt the urge to go and help him but something told him not to. The pyrotechnic then began, with a painful limp and the speed of a tortoise, to walk towards his home.
Daryl felt his heart go out to what would soon become number nine on his list of deaths.
"OLIIIVE!"
The last syllable was stretched out to an angry, loud length that shook the entire tool shed beside The Villa. Through darkness lit solely by candles strewn throughout and a weakly shining lamp in the corner by where the Witch Princess usually read her books, the voice boomed with immortal volume. Which was appropriate seeing that she was, indeed, immortal.
She stood at the top of the stepping ladder reaching her great large pot in the center of the room, in great need for an ingredient that she had asked for from her assistant a good long five minutes ago. Five minutes was a damn long time and a personal record for the assistant in question.
"I'm coming! Jesus Christ!" was a teenage girl's reply. She trudged quickly up the stairs with a brown box, her blonde ponytail bouncing behind her and her green eyes cast downward angrily. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I couldn't remember if you needed lizard scale or lizard tail, so I picked up both."
The Witch Princess rolled her eyes. "Idiot, I said I needed both!"
Olive turned up her nose in disinterest. "I suppose we both win, then."
The witch growled in impatience and grabbed the box from the girl, checked it's contents and dumped what it held inside her pot. "Good, now we wait."
She gave the teen a light push to rush her down the stairs to get her out of her way. "What is this supposed to do again?" Olive asked as she moved quickly down the stairway. The Witch reached in front of her and pulled the ponytail out of her hair, allowing it to fall down her back, so she could use the elastic to put her own hair out of her sweating face. "If we get it right, it will actually singe and consume essential structures of a given host, specifically human anatomical devices, to the point of complete disintegration."
At the end of the sentence Olive stopped and turned to slowly to look at her with wide eyes.
The Witch groaned. "It will eat her fucking insides, Olive."
"Oh!" she exclaimed before continuing her return to the floor below.
The fifteen year old blonde was thin, athletic, and beautiful, though she could at times be a bit ditsy. "And Your sure this one will actually work?"
The older female shook her head. "There is never any certainty in magic, you know that. Have I taught you nothing?"
Olive jumped from the second step from the bottom of the stairway to the floor, where she scurried off to the book case, ignoring the witch.
"I turn sixteen in a week!" she declared proudly as she grabbed an apple from a basket on The Witch Princess's desk. Said Princess took a seat in the old oak chair at the desk and grabbed one of the shiny red fruits for herself. "So you do." she replied flatly.
"Are you gonna buy me a gift, WP?"
The Witch snorted. "Don't hold your breath, kid."
Olive frowned and bit into her apple.
"Your birthday present is gonna be knocking that bitch Muffy over dead once and for all." The Witch said with a scowl, tossing the apple back and forth in her hand.
Olive took a seat in a nearby stool, swinging her legs back and forth, her eyes just as wide and innocent as they were when The Witch had first met her. "I wonder if this one will work." she lost interest in the apple and laid it down on the desk. The older blonde rolled her eyes at the child's wastefulness.
After so many failed attempts to do the evil housemaid in once and for all, The Witch had little faith that this one would actually do the job. But she had to keep trying if she was to rid the valley of that woman- the one person the Witch Princess had been outdone in forms of evilness of this Valley.
"It will work." she said quietly, eyeing the apple and seeing her faded and blurry reflection. "It has to work."
She looked up at her high ceiling and through the apple hard up to hit it. With the added anger in her already frightening upper arm strength, the apple actually soared high, but not high enough to come close to the top. "Or you, me, and the rest of this damned place are doomed." On the final word, the apple dropped to the floor.
The Harvest Goddess.
Beautiful. Lovely. The epitome of grace and feminine authority. Where she had come from no one knew, and they were content with such mystery. The Goddess loved the occasional trick and laugh, but nothing that could cause anyone harm.
Yet, there she stood. Her eyes wide and aflame with hatred and fury, the winds and rains from hell itself blasting at full speed behind her, thunder roaring like never before and lighting striking everything in sight.
"You dare to allow such sin in my Valley?" she growled low and painfully. "Fool! You, you and the rest of this damned place will pay for this!"
One by one, the visitors were seen, consumed by fire and slowly roasted until nothing but nameless ashes remained, and the loud thunder and blinding lightning tore down their homes, their belongings, the very ground no longer existed- it was just a void.
They appeared in front of her, surrounded by black, and the fire started at their ankles, working up to their torsos and then silencing their screams of agonizing pain by melting the skin of their faces away. She made her watch as the people that she had come to know as her neighbors were destroyed by the Goddess's endless wrath.
"Windows of Heaven! Fountains of the Deep! Craters from the depths of Hades itself! Open! Consume these vile fools for what they have done to my precious Valley!"
They appeared one by one to be destroyed… and she saw everything. Their horrified faces and desperate eyes, and their hands reaching out for help, but she couldn't move, regardless of how badly she wanted to.
Then, she saw Dalton.
Open.
Her eyes open. She was out of breath, and in a cold sweat and had cried loud from the nightmare. Nami grabbed the front of the shirt Gustafa had lent her to calm her racing heart.
She looked to see Gustafa still asleep, not stirred in the least by her outburst. His breath still even and deep, and his body motionless save for the movement of his diaphragm, up and down to the beat of his peaceful inhales and exhales.
"Windows of Heaven." she whispered. "What the hell does that even mean?"
With a swift shaking of her head, she tried to erase the images from her dream away. It was just a dream, and it was pointless. But, the one image she couldn't seem to release was… Dalton. About to be consumed by fire, about to be killed right in front of her.
"Back to sleep." she whispered aloud. "Just a dream." Nami wasn't one for talking to herself, but whatever it took to calm her pulse and cold sweat. She tried to think of happy memories, of Dalton's birth, of her and Jack's marriage. But they always went back to that image of her son, the fire starting to bite at his ankles…
No, no she couldn't. She'd end up going insane.
"Just a dream." she whispered as she turned on her side. "Just a dream."
Author's Note- TOTES forgot bout the rulers in the last file. Sorry guys! Regardless though I know that this chapter is short but I needed to get these few plot points out of the way. Then we can return to the fun stuff.
So, to review over the children,
Nami & Jack's son is Dalton.
Lumina & Rock's daughter is Clara.
Celia & Griffin's twins are Luke and Hannah.
Flora & Carter's daughter is Lily.
Flora's daughter that she won't reveal the father of (yet) is Fara.
And the Witch Princess's assistant is Olive.
Just a quick recap in case you were getting confused. :)
No more children will be introduced. I dont think.
Anyway, I hoep you enjoyed. Feel free to review. :)
-Lou