The Darkmist: Death By Choice

chapter 2

Chapter 2 ~ Rex:

I awoke with my stomach hurting, gasping for air as I sat up on my bed; fatigued and confused. I wallow in my defeat for a while before Lever walks in with tea. To my surprise, she was worried about me. "They say Chamomile is a natural relaxer and pain reliever..." she said quietly while stirring the tea. I gently took the tea from her hands as she sat next to me. "How do you feel?" she asked. She sounded genuine, but I couldn't fathom why she cared. I didn't answer, I just gently shrugged, giving an ambiguous answer. It was technically the truth, I wasn't dying, but my fatigue and pain meant I wasn't okay either, I didn't know how to answer. "You know... I wasn't kidding back there..." she said. I wasn't quite sure what she meant. "How so?" I asked, taking a sip of my tea. "About punishing you. You might not have noticed considering you just woke up, but you can't use your powers. They have to be reactivated." I choked on my tea. After a slight coughing fit, I got myself together. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU M-" Lever cut me off by holding her hand over my mouth. "Hey! Don't be so loud, we're in a hospital, you'll disturb the other patients. You don't want the doctors to think you're crazy, do you? You know what they'll do to you nowadays." She was right, but I was so angry, I continued to confront her. "What the hell did you do to me?" She fixed her face, she looked very serious. "Everyone who has the kind of powers we have has a source. It's in our stomachs, it's our weak spot. I took advantage of your lack of body armor and struck you. My strike disrupted your chakras and essentially pushed the pause button on your powers." I was furious. How dare she take advantage of me like that? How dare I let myself get to that point of weakness? I already had my ill feelings toward her, but this is a new low. I'd expect it from the military, but not even someone as cruel as her. She started to look angry, then she barked at me, "What other choice did I have? I told you not to do it, but you went too far. I had to stop you." I couldn't believe she tried to justify that. "You had no choice? I went too far? How do you know that what you did isn't permanent? What if you just messed me up for good? Did you think about that?" I wasn't finished with my rebuttal, but Lever was eager to chime in. "First of all, you have no right to question my actions, end of story. Second of all, you don't know what my life has been like, I have never had a choice ever. Do you think I wanted this life? I was forced into this. You still have your freedom, but you choose to sacrifice it every day, and for what? Because you need the money? Piss off!" I was in complete shock, at a loss for words. She displayed complete arrogance, all while subtly seeking my sympathy; and after what she did? I won't fall for it this time, she will never have my weakness again. "You know what? If you feel that way, I don't even know why you came to visit me or why you were pretending to feel sorry for me. Just leave. Now." I couldn't even finish the tea. I resisted every urge to throw the cup and saucer up against the wall and simply placed it on my nightstand. I stood up and opened the door for her. She didn't even give me a look in the eye. She aggressively grabbed her things and rushed out.

Chapter 2.1 ~ Lever:

"Ahh... why, why, why can I not just elaborate? I'm trying to give him an out, can't he see that? It's so aggravating, calling me selfish. The nerve." I say, frustrated. I'm so tired of constantly being misunderstood, I'm just gonna leave. I gather all of my things from the waiting room and leave as quickly as possible. I'm gonna head back to the base and go on about my business. As I'm heading to the airport, I can't help, but hear a commotion coming from a nearby alley. I head into the alley and duck behind a garbage can. I peek out just enough to see 2 bandits messing with a little girl. One of them has her grabbed by the collar up against the wall, the other one is yelling obscenities at her. "Listen here, you little apostate, I don't know what you and your bible thumper little friends were thinking, but what you're not gonna do is question your faith." one of the thugs said, aggressively. The little girl attempted to speak up for herself, "I wasn't questioning my faith, I was just-" The thug who had her by the collar slapped the little girl, cutting off her sentence. That was enough for me to intervene. I got up and walked towards them. The thug who had his hands free looked at me and said, "Hey! What are you doing here, you dumb broad?" I swiftly move up to him, faster than he can even comprehend, and knock him out with a simple strike in the throat. The other thug drops the kid and looks my way, but before he can move any further, I grab his right arm and cut off his hand. He drops to his knees, screaming. "If you're gonna use that hand to abuse little girls, something tells me you won't need it." He reaches for the hand with his other arm, giving me no choice, but to cut that one off as well. "Some people just never learn." I say with a smirk as I stash the dirty hands in my bag. I grab the little girl off the ground and take her away, leaving the two thugs helpless. It's what they deserve. I get her on her feet and lead her out of the alley. As we were walking, I looked down at her. She looked like a normal little girl. She has on a school uniform, but no bookbag, her hair is straight and down, her skin is white, but I won't make any assumptions. I decided to break the silence. "...so... what's your name, little girl?" "Lilly." she replied with a quiet voice. "I'm gonna take you home, where do you live?" the little girl looked around and pointed East. "Just down here. My house is the white one at the end of the street." I followed the little girl until we got there. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible before her parents made any assumptions about me. I gave the girl a candy bar out of my bag and began to leave. "Stay safe, bye now." "But wait-" the girl called out to me; I turned around. "Tonight's a special night at my house, I would like to invite you. You saved me, after all." I was flattered, but I really didn't need any more trouble. "Lilly, that sounds great, but really, I should get going." "Please, just for a little bit." Lilly pleaded. I'll never know why, but there's nothing like hearing a child's innocent voice that makes you weak enough to do whatever they want. I couldn't resist anymore. I followed her to the porch and she led me inside. I stood behind Lilly so that I'm close to the door if things go left. I see a medium-height woman coming from what I assume to be the kitchen into the front room. Her body type is quite stacked, you can tell she's a mother. She has on a simple white dress with short sleeves and a plaid apron. I smell food; and looking at the time, dinner must be ready. Her skin looks slightly more tan than her daughter's. Her features aren't as delicate, either. I was right not to label Lilly based on her appearance. The woman rushes over to her daughter, picks her up, hugs her, and spins her around in a circle. "My beautiful daughter is home, just in time for dinner." She puts her down and kisses her on the cheek. She glances at her left arm and sees a red bruise. It must've been from when that lowlife jerk dropped her back in the alley. She gasps with horror and wastes no time asking questions. "What happened? Who did this to you? Does it hurt? Who is this woman? Does she have anything to do with it? I'll get my rolling pin-" The woman starts to head toward the kitchen and I grab the doorknob. Lilly yells "WAIT!" Her mother turns back around, looking horrified. "What is going on, Mija?" Lilly takes a deep breath and says, "I was attacked by a couple of bandits in an alley on my way home from school and this lady saved me. I remembered that the Sagrada comunión was this morning, so I invited her to dinner tonight so that we could pray together as a thank you to her." Her mother placed the rolling pin back on the table. She came up to me and took my hand in both of her hands. "Gracias, you kind soul. I don't know what would have happened to my daughter if you hadn't saved her. I could never repay you." the mother said, graciously. "Oh, ma'am, it was nothing. I only did the right thing, anyone could have done it." "Ah, but it was you, wasn't it? Not just anyone, and you have to be rewarded." The mother said, brightly. "Me llamo Hydrangea. What's your name?" "Uhh, Lever, ma'am." I say, a bit nervously. "Maravillosa! Sit down, sit down! Dinner is just about ready, you look like you need some meat on those bones, young lady." She grabs my hand, pulls me toward the table, and pushes a chair under me. There's already a ton of food on the table, but she goes into the kitchen and takes a pan out of the oven. There is a lid over it, I can't tell what it is, but it smells delicious. The truth of the matter is, I can't remember the last time I ate. It could have been hours, It could have been days. In the middle of a war and an epidemic, all the days start to run together and you lose track of time. Sometimes you end up choosing certain things over sustenance. I'm seated at the head of the table, Lilly sits next to me on my right, and her mother sits to my left. Hydrangea and Lilly both grab my hands as they start the prayer. "Wait, hold on-- I don't know any prayers... to tell you the truth, I'm not even religious like that. I'm sorry." I say, truthfully. "Ay, niña, that's okay. In this town, we accept people from all walks of life. Sin juicio." she says with a smile. She's so understanding, I almost envy her motherly tendencies; I've always been sort of cold. "Just close your eyes, bow your head, and listen while I lead us through this prayer." I did as she asked and she began the prayer. "Dear heavenly father, we are gathered here today to thank you for blessing us with the food on this table. I ask you to shine your protective light on my husband so that he makes it home safe. I pray that you can guide us through this ugly war and into the light. And thank you for sending guiding Lever to my daughter's rescue, I am eternally indebted. In Jesus's name, we pray. Amen." It was a small prayer, but I really liked it for some reason. It made me feel a little bit better about how bad today was for me and everyone else. She began serving the food. I couldn't tell what kind of food this was and I didn't bother to ask because I knew she would tell me in Spanish. All I know is that the food was quite spicy, but it was delicious. I finished about 2 plates and yet, Hydrangea continued to offer me food, I had to respectfully decline. I think I was even too full for dessert. Hydrangea looked at Lilly with a puzzled expression. She looked like she had something to get off her chest. I thought she would wait until I was gone to address the altercation, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. "So, how did this happen; this incident that Lever saved you from?" Lilly looked down at her plate, sadly, lightly scraping her fork through scraps of food she hadn't eaten. She began to say with a soft voice, "Well... sometimes I get teased at school by the bigger kids; the teenagers." I didn't know how old she was, but she appeared to be in the 4th or 5th grade. Her mother said, slightly angry, "For what? How could anyone pick on you?" "I don't know, I guess because I'm smaller and because I don't look like the other girls. I look mostly like you, right mommy?" Hydrangea looked down, seemingly in shame. "Today, one of the kids picked on me and I said, 'If God loves me, why would he let me get bullied like this?' So one of the bigger kids said, 'I'm gonna make you eat those words!' so he and his friend chased me into an alley and they were gonna beat me up for questioning my faith. That's when Lever saved me." Hydrangea looked really hurt. I could tell it wasn't the question that hurt, it was her daughter's well-being that was her concern. She looked like she didn't know what to say, so I internally panicked and intervened. "Lilly, listen to me. I may not be the biggest believer, but I can tell you this much: God is not punishing you. It may seem unfair that you pray every day, praise him, and love him only for bad things to happen, but God sees you and he's only trying to make you stronger. You may think that I saved you, but you really pulled through on your own, that's that God-given strength. You may experience hardships, everyone does, but if you use your faith to guide you to benevolence, you will be blessed through and through. And just remember, if anyone gives you any trouble, just call me and I will take care of any bully. Do you understand me?" Lilly smiled and nodded back at me. She got down from her chair and hugged me, I hugged her back. Hydrangea, tearing up, grabbed my hand and said "Thank you, and God bless you, ángel." I smiled back at her, but before I could respond, my phone began to ring; it was Chris Hanshaw, so I knew it was urgent, but I couldn't fathom why he would be calling. "Lever, we regret to inform you that Mark and Erza have been reported missing. The rest of your team is assumed to have been eliminated." Chris says to me, sternly and regretfully. "Impossible, that can't be right." "Lever, we've done all we can d-" I interrupt him, my senses are tingling, I can tell something isn't right here. "I don't doubt that you have, but I haven't done all I can do. I'll be down there as soon as possible to investigate myself." Chris started to say something, but I hung up immediately, cutting him off. I grabbed my bag from behind my chair and began to head out. "This has been such a lovely evening, and you guys were so kind to me, but I have an emergency, and I have to get going." I pick up a small calendar book from their fireplace and write my number in the back of the book and hand it to Lilly. I kneel to her and kiss her forehead, "Stay safe, sweetie. Remember what I said, don't hesitate to call, okay?" "Okay, thank you for everything. Goodbye, Lever!" I head out the door and Hydrangea yells after me, "Gracias! May God bless you for all the kindness you've brought to this family. Bendito sea tu corazón!" I began to head to the airport as I had planned all along. I have to get to the bottom of this.