Does This Darkness Have A Name?

Copyright Wonderlust of a Lost Girl

A/N: I'd like to let you know that they're won't be an epilogue for this story. I've been thinking of the many ways I could write it to make a somewhat twisted happy ending, but I've realized I like the story better with this ending. It might not answer everything, but it leaves you (hopefully) with the emotions I want you to have after fully reading this story. Read and enjoy or grimace, and tell me what you think! :D

Rikki's POV:

When I awaken, flashes of memory engulf me.

I was in a box with tiny holes that barely allowed me to breathe. The monsters carried me into the car. We drove awhile until they stopped, and brought the box on a cruise ship. The other people on the ship didn't know I'm here. They couldn't, or else they would have saved me, right? Right as I was about to scream, I blinked into unconsciousness. There was too much blood loss. It was difficult to think.

Soon enough, a monster opened the box and we were in a different room, but I could still feel the sway of the ocean beneath me. He stared at my hands like they were a poisonous toxic horror to his eyes. But soon enough, he bandaged them all up. I was too tired to wonder if this was in Charlotte's agenda, or even where Charlotte was. I was just glad I wouldn't be dying from blood loss, at least I hoped.

All through the cruise ship ride, the monsters talked to each other in anxious hushed voices. My head rocked back and forth as I tried to force this all out.

I wasn't here. I was in a dream. I was in a bed sleeping with Zane. Zane loves me. And he did not fall off a balcony a few hours ago. No, he was holding me as we slept. And soon enough this dream was going to be over.

"She never got here! Something's seriously wrong. Charlotte was the one who created the plan. No way would she bail out."

"I know. What are we supposed to do with the mermaid?"

"I don't know. But she is pretty hot and the sex wasn't horrible. How about we just play with her?"

"Or drop her into the sea? I mean, she'll swim. And I'm tired of this. I never knew it'd be so much work for Charlotte to get her revenge."

"Well, we've got to do something with her…" The faceless voices continued speaking and I heard some shuffling with their suitcases. And then they screamed.

I smiled and then I conked into a needed sleep of nothingness. When I dreamed, Zane and I were back at the Hollywood sign and he promised he'd never leave me.

No longer am I on the ship, but upon sand and heat that I'm all too well familiar with. The sand and heat of Mako. The sun glimmers upon my pale skin. The more I open my eyes, the more reality hits me.

"Hey!" I rub the sand off my hands. "Hey!" I start walking towards the tide. "Hey!" Suddenly, the person who's been yelling collides with me. "Where do you think you're going?"

I stare at him with a stare of indescribable hate, but it doesn't work as it did in my high school days. He just stares back, long and hard. So I lift my hand as a threat, until I realize…my fingers are long gone. So I glance around and find no Charlotte in the middle of lost monsters.

"Charlotte isn't here." I say my observation out loud to make sure it's real.

"Yeah." One of the monsters grunts. "You need to lead us to some moonpool. The one Charlotte talked about. Where is it, slut?"

I wobble in word vomit. Why the moonpool? What is going to happen? Could they really hurt me if I dived into the water right now, and swam far, far away where no one could ever find me?

Then I wheeze out, "This way." I start the long trek through Mako's jungles, where I will lead them into the pit of magic that Charlotte was obsessed with. Then I will do anything else they want. I don't even know why I'm still breathing anymore. If they intend to keep me kidnapped for eternity in a dead insane girl's memory, I'll have to plot an escape. If that fails, then I'll plot my inevitable death.

But first things first, I show them the tiny hole that lies between the two rocks us mermaids jumped from before Cleo stumbled into the cave and changed our lives forever. Then I slide through. First they yell, thinking I've tricked them, and then they, with all their prepared supplies and equipment, fall down as well.

Once we're into the volcanic cove of memories, one of the monsters turns to me, and with a pitiful smile, says, "Hey, we have sandwiches…if you're hungry."

I'm starved, but I can't give him the satisfaction. With my luck, he'd drug the sandwich and some way, and I'd wake up in another one of those nightmarish bondage machines… I shiver, and then snap. "Oh so now, since Charlotte's gone, you want to be nice to me?"

"Well…I just think you should eat." So the guy opens a cooler, and throws a ham and cheese sandwich at me. He seems to be about to leave my presence and huddle up with the others, when he sighs, deep and hard. "Look, I never wanted to do any of this… Charlotte told us we could just get to have kinky sex with hot girls… I didn't think this would happen."

I don't respond. I can't. Silence defines the air. I just stare at my reflection in the moonpool; bruised body, dirty face, tired lifeless eyes…a girl that is the vision of lost hope. A girl named Rikki Chadwick. With horror, I realize that girl is me.

Another monster has hobbled towards me. "Yeah, uh, sorry, I guess."

I want to scream, but I can't. I know screaming would only make my head throb more. I know thinking would make my head throb more. And my head is already pounding in its' chaotic thought processes of what happens after this. I want to get my fingers back and burn them all, but I can't. I can't do anything so I just stay quiet.

"Well, I guess it's time. I think she'd want this." One of them mumbles to the other. Then they lean down, and start unzipping one of their large bags. I gag when I see it-her-the evil witch that caused all of this…the evil bitch who's frozen solid-dead.

I try to order my eyes to squeeze shut. I don't want her corpse haunting me, but my eyelids don't listen. I stare, wide with fright and with coldness and with death, as the redheaded vixen is lowered into the moonpool.

I want to gag. I need to. The moonpool can't be ruined by her wickedness. And when I think that surely, she'll float-that is what dead bodies, do isn't it? Except that she doesn't. She was evil, and now she's floating to the sandy bottom of the moonpool, and hopefully to the lowest pit in hell.

As my eyes hover over the spot where she'll eventually decay into pieces of the ocean and sand, I take notice of the strange dirty broken girl again. I promise myself that I won't give up, because the girl that has been lost, who still might be inside of me… She would never give up. I wish I were still that girl.

. . .

Zane's POV:

Rikki's smiling with that look of delight; the rare shining of happiness on the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. She's laughing at me, twitching her lip and making me want to pull her in and passionately kiss all her pain away. Then she gets taken from me-her smile is gone, her eyes are dull and frightened, and evil men are pinning her down.

Charlotte holds the strings watching my love get hit and kicked and tortured. They've tied her up, and I know this has happened before-far too many times for me to stand here, doing nothing. So I lunge forward at the men but my punch does nothing. I start pulling at the ropes that restrict Rikki, but my touch is nonexistent.

I'm invisible and I'm unable to affect anyone. I can't save Rikki. I can't even yell. I can only watch, as Rikki gets beat up and raped, as Charlotte laughs…as Rikki dies.

When I open my eyes, I am met with the sight of two human beings I used to hate. Then again, if I think back accurately, everyone who I care about used to be someone I loathed.

Will sits with a dazed expression, and he's holding his head like has a throbbing headache that won't be ending anytime soon. Emma is by his side, holding his hand, her eyes inching downwards to a stomach that is growing… I frown. They're so lost in their selves. They don't notice me. Which raises the question, where am I?

Looking around, it's all too bright. So I know I'm in a hospital.

Remembering hurts. Rikki and I, her pain as the monsters tortured her, my fall to the concrete… I shudder, and almost kick Will in the face. This makes the couple realize I'm awake, and so they gasp, acting as if they've really cared about me all these years and my death would be so tragic, they'd have to cry and say I was just the misunderstood rich boy…

Which I am. But I don't want them saying it at my funeral.

"Never thought you two would be at my hospital bed." I scoff.

"Yeah well, I don't think either of us envisioned being in a hospital waiting for Zane Bennett to wake up from his coma anywhere in our lifespan." Will spits with a sigh. But really, I can see he's glad I'm alive.

Then it hits me. "Wait? Coma? Ah," then as I realize I slipped into unconsciousness, the pain stabs me. I realize my leg is in a sling and my chest feels like it's been sliced into internal shreds. "Shit. What happened after…the fall?"

"Well…Bella and Charlotte are gone. They're dead." Emma states bluntly.

I raise my eyes at her numb face. Out of it, I ask, "What exactly happened to them?"

"What do you think, Zane?" Emma snaps as if she's had a long day and can't even bear it anymore. "I froze Charlotte and shot Bella. I don't want to talk about it." Will squeezes Emma's hand, and it calms her for only a moment. There's no disguise that can mask their past however; of going through hell and back. Then I realize, I've been through hell back. And Rikki….

"Is Rikki hurt? Is she here? I want to see her!" The moment I said it, I knew something was wrong. Their faces became distorted and they both appeared as if they were about to cry. When the monsters pushed me off the balcony, they had Rikki. They would have hurt her. If she was in the hospital, why would Emma and Will be by my bedside?

They don't answer so I start yelling. "Come on! Where is she?" I shake my head in denial. This can't be happening. She can't be gone. I hear my lifeline start to chirp excessively as my heartbeats faster and faster, but I don't care. "Tell me!"

"They took her. Charlotte's brother's friends. We think they took her to Mako. But…we don't know. They're trying to find her." Emma whispers. And then she breaks, and she falls.

"What? We have to be out there finding her! They're going to kill her! We have to get out of here!" I know I'm acting insane, but I don't care. I don't even care when some doctors come in with worried faces and a big shot. I don't even care when they inject it into my veins, and the darkness consumes me.

. . .

After I wake up, I stay on my best behavior. I do this only to prove the fall did not alter my sanity, and to get to Mako Island and look for Rikki as soon as possible. And within two days, they tell me I seem healthy and ready for hospital release. So, we're off to the island of magic on the edge of Australia.

When Will, Emma, and I (and the absence of Cleo) arrive in Australia's airport, we receive a call from the Australian police that changes our lives.

. . .

Rikki's POV:

"Wake up! The police are here!" Someone whisper-shouts and I'm stolen from a peaceful sleep where I pretend reality doesn't exist. Slowly I start to hear distant voices calling my name over and over. A search party?

I want to scream, but the monsters give me the glare of death telling me that isn't a good idea. I don't doubt they still have weapons that could tear me to shreds.

"We need to get out of here!" One of them whispers. They're panicking, and with absolute no thought, I help them.

"I'll tell you how to leave if you promise to let me go." I whisper into the nightmare.

They stare at me for as long as they can until they hear the police yelling again. So they nod, and they're at my command. And the sight of them begging makes me smile. "Please, Rikki."

I raise my eyes. They haven't called me by my name once, and it makes me want to vomit. They don't have the right to call me Rikki. "Well, I don't know. Maybe if you slit your dick off first…" I twirl my lip as I'm surprised to hear my hiss.

"Come on. We didn't want to do this to you…" They're lying. So I just shake. "It was Charlotte, not us. Please." They beg. "We'll never do anything to you again, just…"

I stop their banter, and just wheeze out. "The moonpool. You can swim out to the ocean." The police are stepping close to the volcano's tunnel, calling again and again. "Just go!" I scream. Then they jump into the moonpool with their bags, above Charlotte's body, and leave my life forever.

"Rikki? Rikki? We're going to save you!" The police call, but I don't say a word. I will wait awhile, and then dive into the moonpool, and leave this all behind.

But then I hear their voices.

"Rikki! Come on! We need you!" Will is calling with tragedy laced in his voice.

Then Emma weeps, "Rikki! You have to survive… You just have to!"

I hear the pain in their voices, and I want to scream out that I'm here. But I'm not sure that I am. I don't know if the damaged distorted thing I've become can be recognized as Rikki, the girl they once knew. So I keep quiet and fade into nothingness.

Then I hear his voice. It's sad to say that this woke me up from my trance into depression, but it did. Zane Bennett. Feeling something…feeling something horrible because I'm gone.

"Rikki!" He yells and then mumbles. "You know I can't live without you…"

So I silently crawl to the volcano's tunnel opening and wheeze, because I'm exasperated. "I'm here." I wonder if they were going to come down the tunnel anyway, knowing it's our spot of memories, but I decide it doesn't matter. I just want to be with the people that are safe…that don't bring me into a darkness of despair.

They hear my cries, and yell to the police. I hold my tears inside as I watch the seemingly timeless vision of Emma, Will, and Zane shouting in glee, and then telling the police to fetch a rope. I could swim out but the police would think I disappeared again…and I can't bear the thought of being closer to Charlotte than I already am.

I'm just going through the motions as they pull me out. Suddenly, Emma, Will and Zane are surrounding me in an embrace. I can barely think but I know that their love is the only thing that will cure me out of this insanity.

"Are you okay?" Emma hiccups, and tears run from her eyes. Her hand wavers above her belly, where another mysterious survivor is waiting to pop out into the world. Zane hasn't been away from my side for a second, and even in his crutches, and slung arm, he made the trek through Mako Island to find me.

I glance around. We are bundled up in blankets; four survivors of magic; survivors of despair. We're in the middle of Mako Island where all these chaos started, where all the magic started… The darkness has come and it has taken some of us. Lewis, Cleo, Bella, and...Charlotte were all lost along the way. Horror has rewritten my life, but somehow I know.

I tremble, but I have a smile. "No, I'm not okay. But I will be."

A/N: The last chapter to one of the best stories of my life. Not because the storyline's beautiful or perfect or because I nailed the characters smack dab into their flaws and attitudes. I didn't. Or because it's free of grammatical or storyline inaccuracies. It definitely isn't. But because, with this story, I have learned so much about writing through all of you, and have been inspired to write about what really haunts me in the middle of the night. So for that, I thank each and every one of you.