Unmarked

Chapter 44

Lavina struggled in her restraints as she pushed her back up against the wall.

"Will you stop struggling?"

"What do you want, why am I here?"

"Oh relax, child. I'm not going to hurt you, I'm not a monster." Solar Eclipse bent down and touched her hand cuffs. Something clicked and her hands were unlocked.

"You're letting me go?"

She laughed, "Of course not. But like I said, I'm not a monster. You can roam around the castle and some of the outside lots here, but those cufflinks you have on won't let you go any further."

"Oh really, and how do you manage that, by shocking me?"

"Quite the opposite. But why would I tell you? Giving you hints to escape is not my goal."

"She might come for me, but she won't be foolish enough to trust you."

She sighed, "I don't need her to trust me. All I need her to do is what I say. You see, I'm going to drag your mother to that barrier, and she won't leave until she blasts it with everything she's got."

"You wouldn't kill her!"

"You're right, I'm not going to kill her. As much as I want to be free, she is still a good old friend of mine. And she has given me no reason to retaliate against her. Especially since she has a successor such as yourself." Lavina balled her hands.

"We'll just see about that, won't we?"

"Perhaps." Solar Eclipse turned her back to Lavina and walked out of the room. Lavina stood up herself and started to walk around, trying to make sense of everything. The more she looked around the more she thought about where she was.

"This doesn't look like a mansion." Lavina started. "It looks more like a hotel." She talked to herself. She finally reached a hall that was more battered than the rest. She went down the hall watching out for anything peculiar. Then she found a slashed door, she opened it. As she walked in she saw shattered photos that were torn to pieces. Plus the window was blown out and the shades torn. It was like some sort of monster had come in and ruined the whole room. But then Lavina turned around to see one photo that wasn't completely demolished. She put the photo together with her hand, she gasped. "This isn't a hotel, it's a mental hospital." She ran out of the room and made her way out of the front doors. The lobby had caught her off guard, since it was so deshamled it looked like a throne room. But as she turned around she saw the torn, rundown letters. Even some were left on the ground. "The Flint Park Institution." She whispered as she covered her mouth. Lavina slightly turned her head and saw the front gates to the hospital, completely open and moving in the wind. She ran over to it but as soon as she was just a few steps outside she slowed down and stopped. She had remembered this feeling from earlier, when she had gone into Unora's lair. But things didn't go black this time. She could see and hear everything that was going on. Lavina had turned around and walked back inside the gates and then she stopped. "Dang it!" She screamed. "She put some sort of hypnotizing agent in the cuffs. Ugh!" Lavina covered her face. "You know what, fine." Lavina walked back into the building and sat down in the chair in the lobby.

"Not feeling ambushes?" Solar Eclipse said, walking back into the room.

"This isn't your main base, is it?"

"Oh, and what makes you think that?"

"Why would you want to be in a mental institution, one your family put you in over claims that you attacked the mayor."

"Well, look who's smart. You don't show off your smarts now, do you?"

"Not typically, no."

"Mm, well maybe you should. Why hide a strength if you don't need to. And besides, I didn't mean to attack the mayor."

"No, of course not." She said sarcastically.

"I didn't." She paused. "Things had been getting worse, not with me specifically, but with crime. I needed more authority, so I could track them down and put them away. I went to talk with the mayor and all, but he didn't like my proposal. And I guess you could say my corruption did start its take over at that point. Well, I lost my temper and shoved him against a wall, holding him up off his feet. That's when Mason walked in. And well, it escalated from there."

"And that's grounds for this endless bloodshed? You couldn't have stayed in here and tried to resist?"

"I didn't start this." She turned to her. "They declared me sane and I left the institution. Mason saw me out and about and thought for some reason I had escaped. He started shooting stunning bullets at me and that's when I attacked him. And well, again, it escalated from there."

"So what is your goal here then?"

"You should already know that." Solar Eclipse looked at her. "The world is a seedy place. It would be so much easier to just take it over and set one set of rules, don't you think?"

"But that's a dictatorship."

She laughed, "I'm not evil, Lavina. I want to do things diplomatically. I don't want to just barge in and kill them, I want to talk with them. I don't want to hurt people. In fact, there's a sanctuary set up in the city where a lot of people have gone. But food and water aren't always a blessing there, and sometimes it's worth it to scare them so that they go to the rebellion and find their way out of here, because, well, I certainly can't help them with that."

"Then why don't you explain this to him?"

"Explain it?" She maniacally laughed. "I can't get within sight of Mason, all he does is try to stop me. Don't you think I've tried? He told me that my idea was insane. Last time I came near him with my guard down, he tossed me into the bits and left me there to rot." Just then something exploded and Solar Eclipse was knocked away from Lavina. Next thing she knew her handcuffs were off and someone was carrying her away. It was Mason, but before he could get out of the gate Solar Eclipse stopped him, smashing down in front of him. "Give her back to me."

"You are not getting her!" Mason set Lavina down behind him and put his hand on his belt. They started to fight and within seconds he had her lassoed, but then she dragged him in the air as she started flying. Amilia ran up to Lavina and grabbed her by the hand.

"What's going on?" She asked her.

"We're getting you out of here."

"What? But she's not insane!"

"She may not be, but we can't just let her leave here. She's too powerful." But once again they were stopped.

"Hello dear, Amilia."

"Please just let us leave."

"Leave, but of course, right after you have to help me leave."

"That's not going to happen."

"Soka!" They heard from behind her. Mason came up from behind her, trying to hit her with his fists.

"Mason!" Amilia yelled. As Mason came towards them, so did Solar Eclipse. Amilia felt Solar Eclipse tug in her and handed Lavina to Mason. She said one last thing to her daughter,

"Run."