FALTER

CHAPTER 20: A jump to the sky turns to a rider kick.

Mr. Green looked down at Falter. His eyes had stopped glowing. Not even a hair moved on his body. With a satisfied grunt, he turned back to his daughter.

Rachel was looking at her hero in abject horror. All the colour had drained from her face, and once again she could feel tears bubbling in her eyes.

No, not again. Rachel steeled herself and vigorously shook her head. One foot behind the other, she once again took a fighting stance. The monster silently looked at the girl, who finally raised her eyes to meet its directly.

The head in the middle of the split face of her father was covered in a black, oily liquid. Drops of it bubbled and boiled intermittently. Its eyes glinted white, peering through the darkness surrounding them. Fluid covered its gurgling mouth.

Rachel was distraught, but aware. She wasn't going to start wringing her hands. Clearly something had happened to her father, changed him but she refused to believe he wasn't there."Dad." She said, dropping her fists. "I'm not going to fight you. I can't."

The monster growled and started walking forward again, its right arm dragging behind it."I just-" Rachel started choking up, but took a deep breath. "I just wanted to see the world, Dad. I didn't abandon you, even though we both feel like I did."

No change in the monster's pace. It kept trudging on.

"You and mom keep... keep trying to stifle me. It's horrible. I don't know what happened but it sucks and I hate it. And then you let those people kidnap me? I..." Her voice trailed off. She was almost going to lose the will to keep talking but something behind the monster caught her eye. A flicker of light. Her heart filled up with courage.

"I get it. It's scary when I started changing. But you could've, should've accepted it. Not send me off to some psychotic summer camp to whip me into shape. Because, believe it or not, after all this bullshit. I still love you. I love both of you, and I always will. I was going to come back but I see now that you still aren't ready to accept me."

The monster stopped moving. Its growling noises transformed into something more high pitched. Something more... human. But this didn't deter Rachel, who vociferously pushed on."No, listen to me for once. Look around you. LOOK."

Mr Green stared at her, then finally moved his head to the right, then to the left.

"You did this, Dad. What were you going to do when I moved out? Went to college? Would you have thrown a bigger tantrum? Listened to that stupid asshole we call a leader?"

CRASH. An enormous claw came whipping at her, but Rachel was faster. Her heart almost exploded from the effort but she dodged out of the way.

"LISTEN TO ME! YOU HAVE TO LET ALL OF THIS GO, you have to let me go! This is life, Dad! You can't fight against change because when you do, everyone around you gets hurt."

Another roar almost ruptured her eardrums.

The tears finally broke through Rachel's barrier and started flowing down her face. But the teenager was no longer helpless. She was furious. The drops decorating her face gave her more of a fearsome look than ever. She looked directly into the white eyes of the monster who was getting ready to attack her one last time.