Halo: Heroes Awakening

34. The Beach

Pomlam: slur for Kailanian people. Particularly upperclass who flaunt pom poms on their clothing as displays of wealth.

Halo

Halo had never seen such pure unfiltered rage in a woman before. It was volcanic. He could see her eyes wash with red as he uttered the words.

Malia was still for a moment. It lasted all but two seconds before she flung herself out of the bedroom, screaming and running. Sina jumped up and chased after her and Halo quickly got up as well.

Poor Finn and Jack's eyes were lost. It hadn't registered to them. "What's happening?" Finn asked.

Halo couldn't steady his panic. "Vaea. He has Malia's mother."

When Halo and the others left the bedroom, they found Malia and a smashed table in half, with an axe in hand. Sina was trying to wrestle it off of her, but Malia threw a hard shove into Sina's chest, knocking her into a nearby wall. Sina recovered quickly, but her eyes were pleading.

"Malia, stop!" Sina shouted. "Please! Just listen for a second!"

Her maddened eyes found Halo. It seemed to flare up even more. His chest tightened seeing her like this. This was exactly what Vaea wanted to happen.

"Malia-" he tried to speak, but she quickly cut him off.

"Shut. Up." She bit through her teeth, pointing the axe at him. "This is your fault!"

Halo looked helplessly toward Sina. He didn't know what to say. And neither did she. It was clear she had never seen her best friend like this.

"If you had just done what you were supposed to fucking do, my mother wouldn't be involved in this! She would be safe!" Malia screamed. "All because you didn't have the guts to kill your stupid bastard of a brother!"

"Malia-" Halo tried to step forward, but Malia flung the axe into a wall nearby. Everyone jumped in their skin, sharing horrified looks.

Strands of sage hung infront of her face as she heaved with rage. "I want to hear fucking nothing from any of you. He's doing this to lure me out, isn't he? So I'm going! I'm fucking going and none of you will stop me!"

"Malia, let's think of a plan first," Sina softly said. "I know you're scared-"

"No, I'm sick of your stupid plans, Sina!" Malia snapped, then turned her anger on Halo again. "She's my mother. Mine. In the hands of a nightmare! Goddess, if I knew you were going to be this useless, I would have just done everything myself!"

Halo felt helpless. All he could do was hopelessly stare at Malia as she raged. He didn't know what to say. This was his fault.

"We know you must be panicking, but Halo had no idea he would go after your mother," Finn tried to say. Malia's eyes never left Halo. Her anger still pointed to him and he could say nothing to fix it.

"If a hair on my mother's head is missing...I'm killing him. You hear me? I'll kill your brother."

She wasn't even screaming anymore. Her voice was sharp, cold and chilling. She meant every word.

"I'm so sorry, Malia," Halo remorsefully said, his voice just above a whisper.

"I don't need you to be sorry, I just need you to do something, because honestly? We have been on the defensive the entire time and I'm sick of it."

After the entire room fell into silence, Malia marched out through the cave entrance. Sina tried going after her, but was stopped by Jack, who reeled her back by the arm.