The Tale of Tara and Emiko

Epilogue

The creature growled, a furious, guttural sound that was quickly swallowed by the infinite expanse of the void where the beast made its home. Or prison. Two sides of the same coin, really.

So close!

So close, it was. So close to being able to rival the cause of its downfall once more.

They cast it into the shadows, later on appearing in the history books as the Ancients, the saviors of the world before bestowing the ability to awaken Spirits of their own upon the vile vermin they called "humans."

It could still remember that fateful day.

Briella, who had been so kind to it, her smile that the creature had taken for granted suddenly gone as she sealed away the creature's powers.

Lesley, whom the creature had spent so many fun-filled hours romping around with in the blissful summer sun, wrapping the creature in chains of words.

Silas, who was the one to teach the creature everything it knew, paralyzing the creature with venom that hurt almost as much as the betrayal itself.

And Damian. The creature's role model, who couldn't even look it in the eyes as he pushed it off the cliff, into the rip in the world, into its eternal grave.

It lay there for what could be seconds or eons. Numb, unfeeling, so close yet so far to death itself. Time was hard in a world outside of the world. Slowly, though, it gained enough strength to see outside the bars of its cage. To, simply put, observe.

Then, it spent lifetimes upon lifetimes in hiding, slowly readying its prey for the slaughter. It was tedious and lengthy, but at least the creature was doing something other than nothing. Posing as a socially invisible student at an elite school who seemed to have all the answers. As an ungrateful, persuasive wife, grieving for her dead youngest child. As a deep-sea kraken. Almost as a bounty hunter, but thankfully its prey couldn't be bothered to learn how to babysit two kids properly. Even as a boastful, strong dragon-one of the creatures it hated!

All in vain, for those two scornful, disastrous, good-for-nothing twins with much more power than anyone but the creature itself deserved just had to rip that victory right out from underneath its nose!

The girl was linked to the Ancients directly, somehow. And as the creature stirred, it knew the powerful leaders whom the beast was created to defeat would reawaken as well. All in due time.

However, this retelling of the bedtime tale would be different. This time, the beast was ready. It wouldn't be caught off guard again.

"I am the Chimera. The fifth Ancient, the hidden Ancient. The Ancient of power, of pride, of corruption. Tara Grey, Emiko Naga, Cliff and Kailey Lumin, you may have escaped this time, but just you wait. I'm coming for you. I will find you. And when I do, all of humanity will watch as I rip the heads of the Ancients from their bodies, and then your own. You will regret ever antagonizing me!"

It suddenly stopped speaking. Its unseeing eyes widened, sensing something that wasn't there. The next time it spoke, its voice was low and soft, infinitely more threatening than before.

"And when I'm done with them, I'm coming for you next, Yvette Wong."