THIS ONE MIGHT MAKE YOU CRY. THIS IS A HEADS UP WARNING. I PERSONALLY HAVE NEVER CRIED WHEN READING, BUT I KNOW SOME MAY. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU, AND TRY TO ENJOY!

Ch. 39: The End of One Story, Marks the Beginning of Another

…One is truly compassionate when they can think of the injustices done to others to be worse than those done upon them….

We all stood in the same spot. I turned and sweat dropped, "Ok, any ideas as to where the h*** the Town House is?" Alister pointed down the left fork in the road we were standing on, "That way." We all gave him a curious look. He avoided our stares, "What? I did live here!" He looked back up, "It's down that way a few blocks, take a right, and down the drive…or at least, that's where it used to be." I grabbed his arm and pulled him to the front, "Let's find out! You lead!"

He paused, "…C.J, are you quite sure that this is the best plan? I'm sure we're walking right into a trap!" I raised an eyebrow, "Well, do you have any other ideas?" He looked nervous, as though he desperately wanted to tell me something, but stayed silent. Instead, he turned around and started leading us to the Town House.

…

Alister was proven right as we finally managed to escape the jungle of thorny vines that had overgrown the drive up to the townhouse. Luckily, the Vorpal Blade isn't exactly a butter knife. I stood and examined the looming Town House, recognizing it as the building on the letter stamp on Alistair's letter.

Dry and prickly vines cobwebbed up and down the sides of the old building. Being surrounded on all sides by a thick wall of vines, the Town House had stood well against the tests of time. It looked to be about two stories, with the same village architecture that was abundant in the town. The doors were large oak double doors, sealed shut by thick vines.

I sighed and started walking up the drive again, stopping in front of the doors. An eerie feeling came over me; the feeling that something was about to happen. I again pulled out the Blade and hacked away at the vines, until the doors were capable of opening. I looked back, "You all ready?" No one looked particularly happy, but no one complained. Though Alister was looking more nervous than he usually did. His eyes were shifting and he was avoiding everyone's glances.

I breathed deep and reached for the handle. Just as I was about to open it, I felt a hand on my shoulder spin me around!

Alister had a desperate look in his eyes, "C.J, stop! It's a tr-!"

The doors behind me blasted open, a gale force wind tearing into my back! "AAAKKK!" I closed my eyes and shielded my head as the wind knocked me right off the front steps as though I were nothing bigger or heavier than a rag doll! I tumbled onto the dead grass, skinning up my palms on their prickly tips. I forced my head up, fighting against the wind and gust to see that the attack was indeed coming from the Town House, its open doors looking like the maw of some monster. The biting wind howled in my ears and stung my eyes, forcing me to shut them again!

A suddenly as it had begun, the wind stopped abruptly. I imminently tore my arms away from my eyes, to see the scene in front of me.

Everything I'd been through, all that I'd seen and done, had been preparing me for this moment. But none the less; I was terrified. For in front of me, in the entrance to the Marmund Town House, stood the mastermind behind it all. The very reason for all this. Alistair.

He defiantly wasn't what I'd expected. He wasn't some shriveled up little man with a cape and witches hat, but a handsome young man. He had black hair and bright, almost reflective green eyes.

What truly made my stomach sink to my shoes was not the monster in the doorway, but the other person. Alister was on his knees, kneeled over in pain and trying to grasp his skull, only being held up by the madman's grip on the back of his jacket.

I jerked up to my feet, anger replacing my surprise, "You!" I glanced around me, only to find that the others were all spread out around me, starting at the b***** to. He smiled as though he were seeing an old friend for the first time in years. "Ah, C.J! I'm so pleased you decided to drop by! I would have allowed you to come inside, but this one," He yanked on Alister's collar, "ruined the surprise. I suppose that's what I get, sending this one to do my biding. He was always a tad of a push-over."

At first, his implications eluded me. Then, his words echoed in my head. I gaped, what felt like a knife in my gut slipped in and twisted as the truth started to dawn on me.

"…Alister…you…." "It was all under my orders of course, so do try not to take it personally." He waved his free hand and Alister doubled over, crying out, as a fresh wave of agony hit him. "You see? He has no choice." Alister pulled his head up, his brown eyes dark with apology, "I'm sorry," he managed to croak. Alistair glared down at him and waved his hand again, sending Alister into another bout of pain.

I ground my teeth, ready to go bear s*** on this mother f***** (please excuse this irregularly bad language, I'm just really p***** off.) "You b******! How can you do this?! He's your friend!" "I haven't a choice either. He was clearly about to betray me." Again, he flicked his wrist and Alister jerked, "He seemed to have forgotten to whom his loyalties lay." I grabbed the Vorpal Blade, "Let him go. Right now."

He smiled and waved, "I would, but I'm afraid you'll have to catch up to me later. After, of course, you play with my little friends." He smiled and snapped his fingers and a gigantic hord of those freaky little bug things popped out of the darkness! Only this time, they weren't trying to deliver something. Alistair smiled, "Have fun C.J. Oh, and Yuri? Do try to remember." Without another word, Alistair vanished, taking poor Alister with him to Lord knows where.

"Everybody, up!" The things attacked, faster than you could have thought possible with those short legs. I swung the Vorpal Blade, slightly horrified to find that the blade cut through the little beast as though it were made of air. However, the thing shrieked and evaporated into nothingness! I jumped back, dodging one as it jumped strangely high, trying to slash at my throat. The blade swished through the air as this one evaporated just as the other had, not to return.

Up, down, left, up, down, behind me, they were everywhere! They were cold and clamy feeling as their claws and antennas barely brushed my skin, coming within a hairs breath with taking a chunk of skin off. I slashed and hacked around for what seemed like hours, unable to pin the others because they were just as swarmed with the freaks as I was. I trusted they were alright though, as I could hear them shouting.

After the long battle, I finally slashed at the last one. I fell to my knees, breathing heavily. "…Ok…role…call. White?" "I'm here." "Boris, Peirce?" "Yup" followed by, "I'm ok." "Yuri, how about you?" "I'm fine."

I managed to pull my head up to see them all crouching like me, out of breath and looking miserable. Peirce looked up, "…Could someone please tell me what just happened?" Boris face palmed and hissed, "Alister betrayed us, that's what happened!"

I was angry. No, worse than that; I was out for blood. I was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. I clenched my right hand in a fist so tight my knuckles turned white and my nails bit into my palm, drawing a little blood. I slammed my fist into the pavement under my feet, pain shooting up my arm all the way to my shoulder, "HE DID NOT BETRAY US! THAT B****** FORCED HIM TO, AND WE'RE GOING TO MAKE HIM PAY D*** IT!"

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see White, yet again, trying to calm me down. But I didn't feel like calming down. "It's not fair! Alister didn't do anything to deserve this, so why?! Why?!" White crouched down and sighed, "Bad things happen to good people." I looked up at him, still shaky. He gently took my hand in his and turned it over to see that my knuckles were split and bloody from punching the vine covered pavement. "We just have to deal with them," he said as he tied a cloth around my hand.

I sighed, finally burying my anger…for later use. I sighed, "Why do you always know just what to say?" He smiled and helped me up to my feet. I turned to the others and took a deep breath, closing my eyes. When I opened them, the blood lust was back.

"Ok everyone, Alistair is going to kill everyone and everything if we don't stop him! He's destroyed his own home, driven wedges between best friends, wazzed the s*** out of me, an now, the b****** has used Alister; his own best friend, as a pawn! Are we going to let this son of a flying ******* win?!" "No!" I fist punched the air, "Then let's go kill that scum sucker!"

...

Yuri continued to lead the pack, having caught the targets scent and was following it to who knew where. My pace was a lot faster than the others, driven by my anger, an so I was held by the back of neck like Ace. Yay.

"C.J, slow the h*** down!" I turned and glared back at Boris, "Or you could speed the h*** up! We're not taking a walk in the park dude!" Yuri stopped. "Actually, it would seem we are."

I looked up to see that we were standing on another vine matted path running through a large clearing-like area. There were a few dead and broken trees littering the area, and old street lamps lining the path here and there. None in functioning order, of course. I gulped as I looked a little farther and saw one of the old lamps split completely down the middle like a hot dog bun!

I looked around, aware that this place had very little cover. Ace leaned in, "C.J…this could be another trap. And this time, Alister can't try to warn us." I nodded, "I know, but what choice do we have?"

I continued down the path, knowing that Alistair was lying in wait somewhere down it. The vines crunched dryly beneath our feet as we made our way through the park, some of us (I'm not pointing fingers here) jumping at the slightest noise.

At some point I stopped dead. Yuri frowned, "What is it?" I glanced back, "You didn't notice?" Peirce looked confused, "…Notice what?" White stamped on the ground, the crunching sounding slightly different from before, "The path is gone."

We were in what I can only assume to be the center of the park. An ancient, partially ruined oak tree towered upwards, its remaining braches stripped clean of any leaves. The gloom cast by the dark clouds caused the trees distorted shadow to be even darker than the shadows on the buildings in the streets. I glanced around, prepared for anything.

"Alright, I know you're watching Alistair! Show yourself!"

"…As you wish."

Crackling echoed through the clearing, far too loud to be the footsteps of a man. On the other side of the tree, Alistair emerged from the dead high hedges. But worse than that, Alister came as well…in Jabberwocky form. His remaining eye was crimson.

…Not quite what I had in mind.

I was once again twitching and shaking from my anger, my hatred of this monster and my deep sadness for Alister taking hold again. "You b******! Let him go now!" He was too far for me to see his expression clearly, but his voice was dripping with mockery, "No now, remember Miss C.J; he works for me." A crisp snap echoed as Alistair apparently snapped his fingers.

Alister let out a keeling, ear spitting howl, forcing the animal like persons of our group to wince cover their ears. As the last note of the wailing shot out, Alister bounded across the circular clearing in a split second, unbelievably fast for an animal his size! He was before us in an instant, pinning Yuri between the massive claws of his hind legs, lashing out at all of us with his winged arms, gnashing his jaws like the mad animal that Alistair had turned him into. We scattered, fearing the knife like teeth would snap us in half if any of us were unlucky enough to get caught between his jaws.

I jumped to the left, avoiding his lashing tail as best I could, only to have him snap around and catch me in his claws. He rightened himself to kind of sit on his hind legs and held me up to see eyes- to- eye with him. The cold, reptilian gaze locked onto mine, nothing of the sweet hearted person that was Alister.

I felt his grip start to tighten on my waist. Oh God, he's going to crush me!

My eyes widened and I screamed. "Alister! It's me, C.J!" He stared at me, his grip still tightening. I stared back into the crimson orb, trying to see a shred, just a tiny shred, of the real Alister. "You don't want to kill me Alister, I know you don't! Don't do it! You can fight it! You can fight him! Remember what he did to you Alister!" At some point of that, I'm not sure when, his grip stopped tightening.

I kept talking, getting to the point of babbling, "Remember when we first met? You were hurt and I pulled you out of that forest? And remember when you found me after I fell? You remember all that?" He kept staring at me, something shifting in his eye. For a moment, his grip tightened to the point of hurting me. I yelped, and the claws imminently loosened. Trembling, I managed to whimper, "Please, don't do this."

He snapped. He shut his eye and dropped me like that. I cried out, but somehow I'd landed on something relatively soft. I didn't have time to look and see what it was, as I was still staring after Alister, who seemed to have turned on Alistair! They were not far from us, Alistair fending off Alister's fearsome jaws and killer claws with strange, black energy looking waves.

"What are you doing you fool?! Kill them, not me!" Alister kept attacking, giving me a glimpse of his eye. It was a dark, deep brown; turned cold from anger. I sat, dumbfounded, on whatever it was I had landed on. It grunted. I looked down and panicked to see I was sitting on Peirce's back! "Jezz, you ok Peirce!" I lept off the poor mouse and helped him up, keeping a careful eye on the battle. He nodded, his eyes also glued on the raging Alister and the rather p***** looking psychopath.

Finally, Alistair raised his hand, "You've gone out of line for the last time," and on bringing his hand down, a flashing streak of light shot through Alister and the rest of the clearing, slicing the old tree right in half! I heard a cry of pain, but I couldn't see what it was. Alister wasn't cut in half, but he was thrown back into us. We all managed to scurry out of the way before he crushed us. He lay there, clearly in pain. I ran up to his head and put my hand on the underside of his neck. "Are you ok?!" He winced as he tried to move, but managed to dip his head down.

The hated man's voice echoed, "It seems he's far stronger than I ever thought. Not only did he just stand one of my most deadly attacks, but he's also broken my hold on him." I glared at the man, his voice dripping with distaste. "If only he'd just stayed weak. It would have made things so much simpler." Alister flashed as he turned human again, his eye glaring at Alistair. "This…has to end Alistair. You know it does." The man in question narrowed his eyes, "and end it shall; as I destroy this world and everything in it!"

Alister shook violently and tried to stand. I grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet. He gave me a soft glance and then glared at Alistair. "I won't let you do that Alistair. I can't." The ravenett glared harshly, "…It's her, isn't it?" Alister stiffened, "What?" "You never once tried to fight my control before she showed up! Ever since she showed up, you've been defying me! Don't tell me you've gone and fallen in love with her?!"

I stared, dumbfounded, and looked Alister, confused and frightened by what the h*** was going on. Alister didn't respond. He glared at the evil wizard, clearly biting back whatever he wanted to say. The tension in the air was almost a solid, tangible object. My voice was a squeak, "…Alister?" He looked at me again, this time with a deep blush and regret in his dark eye.

"I knew it! She's the cause of all this!" Alister raised his hand, hatred directed at me in his eyes, "You…you'll pay for this!" My eyes widened as white hot light blinded me, leaving me unaware of the force rapidly approaching me! "NO!" I felt someone ram into my side, throwing me to the ground. I landed hard, a scream of pain filling the air. I turned around, still blinded. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision to see what was before me, but the ghost prints were persistent.

After a few seconds, the painfully aggravating ghost images on my eyes faded enough for me see the horror in front of me. Alister, on the ground, blood everywhere.

I gasped, "Alister!" I rushed the few feet between us. I settled on my knees next to his head, trying to see if he was still alive. My hand was pierced by something sharp. I held up my hand and paled; a bloody shard of metal. I turned my head to the others, "Oh God, his clock!"

For a moment, everyone was stunned, and then all rushed down to Alister. I looked up at Alistair, "Look what you've done! Are you happy now?!" Alistair stepped back, horror at large in his eyes. I blinked as I saw that, for the moment, Alistair's sanity had returned to him long enough to realize and grieve at what he'd done. "No…NO!" Alistair disappeared. Just like that.

I turned back to look down at Alister, fearful of his life, "It's alright Alister, you're going to be fine!" I looked back up at the others, looks of sadness in their eyes, yet they did nothing. "Well, come on! We have to do something! We can't' just let him-!" White leaned down and put his arm around my shoulder, "C.J, his clock is shattered. There is nothing that can save him."

I stared at him, tears starting to well. I've seen people; friends, die in front of me, and it never, EVER gets any easier. The shaking in my hands got worse, "The-there must be s-something we can…." "C.J…." I looked down at Alister, who was still somehow breathing, though shallowly. "It's ok C.J, it was going to end like this for me eventually…please don't' cry." He smiled sadly, "I'd hate to be the reason you cry." I sobbed, letting a tear slip out regardless. "Why did you do that?! Y-you didn't have to-to-!" "I did. Weren't you listening?" His skin was even paler than usual, already starting to feel cold, "…To be honest, I think that was the only thing I've ever done right. But if I'm going to die, it might as well be doing something worth it."

He winced as another turret of blood gushed from the slash on his chest. My heart ached as I watched probably the kindest hearted person in ANY world start to slip away. There must be something I could do for him….

I did the only thing I could do for him; I leaned over and kissed him. He stiffened in surprise, but then relaxed, kissing me back. …It was particular, to say the least. Though I really didn't have anything to compare it to, as this was my first kiss. I can say it was pleasant. I pulled back and brushed his hair out of his face. I glared at the others a signal to shut their jaws. Alister smiled warmly, despite his rapidly draining life blood. "It's been a pleasure falling in love with you C.J."

And just like that, he was gone.

…

We were all sitting on the other side of the clearing, away from Alister's body. (Which was now covered by Peirce's coat, bless his soul.) I sighed and looked around at the others, depressed, but my anger slowly starting to replace it. That is, until I noticed someone missing. Other than the one who just died. "Hey, where's Yuri?!"

I turned around, fearing the worst, when I saw something silvery under one of the branches from the fallen (sliced) oak tree. "S***! Yuri!" I raced over to find that Yuri was unconscious under the wood and that it was his tail I'd seen. White came over, "He must have been under it when it came down!" Ace looked confused, "…How's we only just notice that?"

"Nevermind that, help!" We all worked together and lifted the heavy log off the poor fox boy, dropping it beside him. I reached down and checked his pules, and then sighed in great relief. "He's fine, just out cold." I noticed a bruise poking out from under his bangs. He brushed the silky strands aside and whistled, "And he conked his head pretty hard. There's a goose egg here big as a baseball!"

Ace walked over and grabbed Yuri's arm, slinging it over his shoulder and dragged him back to the spot we'd all been standing. He laid the canine on his back and stood back, "So, I guess we wait for him to wake up?" I nodded, "Yup…and then we go kill that b******."

WOW, LOTS OF EVENT HAPPENING IN THAT ONE! AND FOR THOSE WHO ARE SLOW TO CATCH ON, ALISTAIR FORCED ALISTER TO LEAD THE GROUP ON AND LEAD THEM RIGHT INTO A TRAP, BUT ALISTER FELT GUILTY AND TRIED TO BACK OUT AT THE LAST SECONDE. JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T FIGURE THAT OUT : )

ALRIGHT, SO THAT'S PROBABLY SADDER THAN THE ORPHANAGE CHAPPIE, BUT DON'T WORRY, THIS STORY HAS A HAPPY ENDING! CROSS MY HEART!

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