A Choice

Chapter Eighteen

"Evangeline," said a voice, knocking me out of Vladmire's power. I looked over and saw that Wallace moved forward.
"We didn't betray you," he said, looking sad.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Crazy, old man, maybe all those years with the elves hurt your brain," Vladmire said with disgust. Wallace ignored Vladmire's comment and continued.
"He knows what I'm talking about, he's just acting like I'm crazy. Evangeline, I am your father and I know you think I betrayed you but I didn't. He killed your siblings and your mother right after you left. I tried to protect them but I couldn't. I survived somehow and went to get you. That's when the elves captured me and kept me there." Wallace had a pleading look in his eyes and part of me believed him, but Vladmire was controlling me and put hatred in my emotions.
He made me hate Wallace. Made me feel betrayed. He told me that after I killed Barric I would kill him.
"I can prove it!" said Wallace, seeing my emotions. He turned around and showed me the symbol on my father's neck that I had seen in the dream. It was exactly the same to the one that was on my neck now, but faded.
"Its fading because my power is going to you, but I was The Ender and now you, as my only heir, get all my magic, you can't use the magic badly, it will ruin the world!" Wallace yelled over the wind that was starting up. Somehow I knew I was causing the wind, but I didn't know how. Suddenly it made sense in my mind, Vladmire took me because he knew I would be The Ender's heir. He would of taken me even if I hadn't given myself up. He could use my magic to take over the world. The thoughts, as soon as they came, were replaced by Vladmire's fake emotions. This time he made me think Wallace was lying to me. I looked down at Barric. His face was filled with horror. He looked at me like I was a monster, and somehow I liked that. I gave out a cackle that sounded more like Vladmire than me.
My hands reached all the way up. I could feel like this was the time to bring them down. I felt like I was looking at what was happening at a distance. I wasn't in charge of anything I did and I hated it. I hated that Vladmire made me hate my own father, hated that he killed my family, hated that he made me go through all this struggle to find the sword, hated that he was making me kill Barric, the person who cared about me the most. My hands swung down. It was as if it was in slow motion. My friends were screaming at me and Vladmire had a big sinister smile on his face. Inside my head I told myself to stop and like magic, I stopped. Just before I hit his neck, the blade making a small cut on Barric's skin.
I dropped the sword to my side and dropped to my knees, panting at the effort to go against Vladmire's magic. I looked up at Barric. We were face to face and I could see he was crying. I picked up the sword again and he started whimpering. I cut off the bands that tied his wrist together. Putting the sword down again I looked at him in the eyes.
"I need to tell you how hard it is for me to say this, but Barric, I love you," I said crying at hearing the words come from my mouth.
"I love you too," Barric said, relief in his words. We kissed then. It went quick, but it was the best feeling ever, to be kissed by someone you truly love and who truly loves you back. He then wiped away tears that I didn't know were there.
"NO YOU LITTLE BRAT!" said Vladmire, ruining the moment we had. I turned back around and reached for the sword.
"Don't come any closer," I warned him, pointing the sword at him.
"Oh my dear, I wouldn't dream of it, but I'm sure someone else will," he turned to my friends and pointed at my father, "Why not dear old dad? Since he was so fine with betraying you before." Wallace suddenly walked forward in a zombie way. He walked right in front of Vladmire and stood there, waiting for a command.
"Kill," Vladmire said. Wallace ran towards me, I quickly got out of his way, throwing the sword to Barric. I yelled at him to protect it, but not to use it. Nodding he ran in front of it. When I looked back at my father, I saw he was already prepared for another pounce at me. I reached for my knife in my belt and to my surprise realized it wasn't there. Wallace never gave me back the knife after he had shaved with it. As soon as I realized that, he took out the knife. He looked at it with a creepy smile and then at me. He gave a crazy laugh and pounced. This time I tried to use my magic. Everything became silent as it had the first time and I saw Wallace fall back as the elves had. The knife was knocked out of his hand and was thrown a couple feet away from the both of us. I quickly ran over there but wasn't as quick as Wallace, even if he was older than me. He jumped to his feet and had the knife in his hand right when I got there. He pointed it at me. He looked crazier than ever.
"Papa," I said, calling him what I used to call him, his eyes softened a bit, but was soon turned hardened again. "Please don't. I'm not going to fight you. Put down the weapon please. I can't lose you. If I use my magic this close, it could kill you, please Papa please." I was surprised when I started to cry. I couldn't help it. Everything was happening too fast. I couldn't lose my father again, not after finding out he did care about me, that he tried to save me.
"I need you Papa, please," when his eyes softened I bit I could see he was fighting it Vladmire's strong control over him.
"Papa, I love you." With that, Wallace broke free of the magic. Giving me the knife, he turned to look at Vladmire.
"I hope I still have some magic left in me," he said laughing at his joke as if we weren't in a deathly situation.
"You leave me no choice, Evangeline, I raised you to the woman you are and this is how you repay me, going against me. Well, this is your last punishment." Vladmire pulled back his hood, something in all my years of living with him he had never done. His face was nothing like I've ever seen. It was deformed and twisted, and resembled a skull.