CHAPTER 76: His Actions, My Punishment

After two ringing seconds of peace and quiet, that was it.

All hell broke loose.

It didn't take Savannah's howling and begging for a cigarette for me to realize that I had shot Eric. The plants draped in black drew whips and knives as they advanced towards me.

"Did you kill the Premier?" they hissed as they circled me in an eerie, tormenting dance of sorts.

"By accident, guys! I . . . I didn't mean it!" I stammered.

"No accidents exist in our eyes. We must flog you!" the dark plants chanted as they pushed me over.

Ash and Peater watched in horror as plants cloaked in black attacked me with their whips and knives. I tried to use my icy magic to blow them off me, but it was futile. The plants conjured a glowing red thread with which they used to bind me. The ropes stung and burned like crazy as they dug deeper and deeper into my skin. The beatings and whippings from the dark plants only added to the fact that I was this writhing, miserable, raw nerve of suffering.

After they were through with me, I somehow broke free and broke loose. I ran towards Ash and hugged him fiercely.

"C'mon . . . help me . . ." I groaned and sobbed.

Ash looked into my eyes and sighed. He was beginning to look like he was being burned from the inside out,

By the hateful fire that blazed deep down within his heart.

"Elyssia . . ." Ash moaned as the fire really began to burn him.

I screamed as he evaporated in a storm of fiery flecks, never to be seen on the face of the earth ever again. He left behind a small red envelope, which I took, before I turned around to face a way bigger problem: the crowd. They were yelling terrible, terrible things about me to the sky, which I tried to ignore. Naturally, it only did so much good, which made me scream at Peater through my head.

HELP! YOU SAID YOU'D BE THERE!
SAVE ME!

I saw Peater try to fight the plants draped in black, but in the end, he was knocked silly, with, like, ten million cuts and bruises. The dark plants then grabbed me and hauled me into City Hall.

I was tossed into a tiny, grimy room that smelled of stale piss and death. After a few hundred more cuts were made on my body, the plants left, laughing like it was all some big fat joke. I sank down to the floor and cried, perhaps harder than I have in my entire life.

I'm a really terrible girl.

So bad, I'd make you wanna hurl.

I should die just to save the world.

Why, I'd welcome death with a flick and a twirl.

My name is Elyssia Antonia Maccabaeus, and I deserve to die. Peater hates me. The whole world hates me. I should have shot myself. I deserve to die. I really want to die. It would be for the good for the world if I died.

I then started yelling at God.

Dear God,

I HATE YOU! Do you know how much I'm hurting right now?!Do you know about the result of your actions?!

I ain't through with ya yet!

I ask you for help, and instead, you gimme hurt! What hell is that?!

I hate you, God.

I hope Satan comes up there, tears out your wretched heart and stomps on it!

I flopped onto my bed and hoped to bleed to death. No such luck. Hours later, the bleeding stopped. Having terrible hallucinations and thoughts, I slowly, painfully, descended into a death-like sleep.

A coma, in other words.

FIVE

WEEKS

LATER . . .

~JUNE 17,~

~2014~

Heat.

Blistering, searing heat.

That was all I could feel eating into my body.

"Mmmph . . ." I groaned as I tried to open my eyes.

But it felt as if I was trying to bench press, like, one thousand kilograms with my eyelids. I finally managed to heave them open, only to find the world around me whirling round and round. My whole body was still on fire, like I was lying on a huge burner that was ten thousand degrees Celsius. I felt paralyzed all over, like I was never even going to blink again. I tried to sit up, but it ended up hurting even more. The world around me was spinning around faster and faster, and it was becoming very strenuous just to breathe. I tried to call Peater, but it only made my head feel like it was being split in half. It felt like I was drowning. Drowning in a spinning, tormenting ocean in the middle of the haunting world of pain.

Then, with a final scream, I had blacked out.

By my estimations, I was out for around a minute or so. But when I opened my eyes, I was in Nathan Phillips Square. I was lying in the middle of the place where I had shot Eric. The pain was gone. I blinked once, twice, before sitting up. Strangely enough, I found my bag beside me. What happened to me after I slipped into that ding-dang coma, only God knew.

Putting that thought aside, I dusted myself off, stood up, and started walking down Queen. Where I was going, I didn't know.

But I was going somewhere.

As I stood on the corner of Queen and Bay, I smacked myself on the forehead three times.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I muttered to myself sullenly.

"At the end of the day, you gotta find somewhere to sleep!"

I then sat down there on the hard concrete and thought about good places to go.

Casa Loma? Nah . . . I got no point in getting treated there.

Ryerson Campus? No . . . they're turning it into something else.

Rosedale . . . Nope . . . no point . . .

After an eternity of thinking, I felt a lightbulb go on in my head. My crystals flashed a bright azure as I sprang into a standing position.

"Forest Hill!" I exclaimed out loud.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I started walking north along Bay. After passing Dundas, College, and Wellsley, I was on Bloor. It was becoming extraordinarily crowded the further I went from Queen and Bay Plants were milling around the streets all over the place, each heading to their workplaces. As I stood on the crowded avenue, I wracked my brain in a desperate attempt to remember which way to go next. Even though I knew the city like the back of my leaf, I didn't exactly remember how to get from Bloor to Forest Hill.

Ten minutes later, I was still staring at the street in front of me. Finally, the gears in my brain started turning again.

Of course it was in front of me! I thought. Davenport!

I continued walking along Davenport, and turned right onto Spadina after five minutes. Ten minutes later, I turned right onto Delevan. Though I didn't know why at the time. Some mysterious force was attracting me to this side street.

Around a minute later, my ears were beginning to pick up the faint tinkling of bells. I followed the sound all the way down Delevan . . . until I was in front of an enormous, time-worn stone mansion. It was emanating an eerie, bluish glow, and the tinkling had turned into full-blown clanging. Squeezing my eyes shut out of discomfort, I dashed up the stone walkway. I began to pound the door with my leaves in desperation.

"Hellooooo! Could you cut off that infernal smack-clanging!?" I screamed.

After subsequently yelling a few select profanities, the glow fizzled out, and the noise, thankfully, died down. The door was answered by none other than Teresa Aviora herself.

"Hello, Elyssia." she whispered.

"I've been expecting you.