Rekindle the Darkness

1.0

Eli hangs from his feet as the shadows suspend him that way. On his face is the most displeased look I have ever seen from anybody and I slowly lower him to the ground, waiting for the scolding as I close my eyes.

A small thud indicates him on the floor and after a second or so of shuffling, I hear him take in a deep breath and it begins.

"Do you have any idea what could've happened if any of them were here?" His voice starts off in a normal tone but I know better than to be fooled. "You could've been hurt, you could've been KILLED!" Eli's anger was never something I was on the receiving end to and at this moment I recall empathy for every single person that had been.

"Tell me, Marlow, what would happen if he made his way back somehow and I had the privilege to tell him that YOU'D GONE OFF AND GOTTEN YOURSELF KILLED?"

I flinch at his choice of words, my head bowed as I made no effort to defend myself.

"Honestly, Marlow, can you go a single day without causing trouble?" Eli himself seems spent now and I take the opportunity to apologise.

I hear him sigh and I peer through my curtain of hair which had in no way shielded me from the scolding I had received.

"I-I'm sorry," I repeat once more after a long silence, in which I hoped he would have recovered.

He just shakes his head at me disapprovingly, huffing, his annoyance clear.

He runs a hand over his face before he stalks out, waiting at the entrance for me. I scurry after him to join his side as I know his anger has already subsided partially.

As my mouth opens to question him regarding our destination, he already seems to be anticipating my next move and he answers before I ask.

"The park."

I follow him silently, although the park is the last place I want to step foot in at this moment.

Memories of Kit and I flood my memory as my eyes sweep the familiar bark-floor with adjacent green grass and a sand-pit. My eyes are locked on the swing-set that Kit and I always occupied as I hear Eli heading to the ice cream van which had just pulled up outside the fence of the playground.

Pretty quickly my eyes begin to fill with tears and I break my gaze on the swings, blinking away the tears as my eyes fall onto the sandpit.

I blink a couple of times to rid the tears and my eyes focus on a little boy with beautiful blue eyes staring back at me.

"Hallo Princess!" Archie scrambles up from his place in the sandpit to me, his arms outstretched as to hug me. I crouch, hugging the little boy, a smile on my face.

"Hey there Archie! Is anyone with you?" I question him, alarmed at the lack of supervision this little boy had.

"My big brother's buying me ice cream!" He exclaims, pulling away at me to point at the male who had now started to walk back and seemed to be in deep conversation with Eli.

I gasp.

Waking up to the sound of the monotone beeping of the heart rate monitor, I emerge from my slumber, shifting in my bed, a pain immediately coursing through my entire body. My breath leaves me in a single huff as I cough, curling back onto my bed.

The male was beside me in seconds, asking me if I was alright but I frown.

"Where's Kit?" I hadn't even seemed to have finished that sentence as he runs through the door, a coffee in his hand, out of breath.

He all but throws the coffee aside, running over to me and putting his hands around me and I wince as he hugs me.

I later find out from him that I had fractured several ribs and a black eye, but as both Necromancer and Resplendent both obtained healing abilities, the black eye had healed pretty quickly but broken bones were another matter.

According to Kit, I had been out for two whole days. The male who I encountered when I first awoke was the Necromancer who had been captured and he introduced himself as Marcus.

I was sceptical at Kit for a couple of days afterwards for having hidden the fact from me that he was Resplendent. Marcus soon convinced me that he had also gone through the whirlwind of emotions but had come to the conclusion that Kit wouldn't have attacked Ethan, who was his own kind if he was working for them.

His explanation seemed pretty reasonable to me and although I didn't bring up the issue with Kit then, I was bound to do so sooner or later.

"The whole rebellious teen act didn't go to plan," Marcus confessed to Kit and I, about how he was supposed to be looking after his younger brother but had instead decided to wander off when telling us how he had ended up being tortured. By this point, we were all pretty close and I regarded him to be family.

Although it was only a short period, Marcus, Kit and I had all grown pretty close and although Eli was a close friend too, he could not relate to being a Necromancer whereas Marcus could.

Through all this time, it had never occurred to me that Marcus and Archie were brothers but as I see him walk down with an ice cream in his hand, talking cheerfully to Eli, I wonder how I hadn't realised before.

Archie bounces off to grab the ice cream from his older brother and Marcus chuckles, before his eyes sweep the park and land on me. He freezes, then after the split-moment of hesitation, he runs towards me, sweeping me up into a hug and I hug him back as if my life depended on it.

"They took Kit." Is all I need to stay and he understands.

Tears start to dot my eyes and I try to blink them away, even though a stray one escapes.

Marcus just rubs my back, helping me to calm down. When I do so, he speaks.

"We need to get inside."

Archie, who had appeared again, oblivious to the bleakness of the situation, was dragging an Eli by his hand with him as he asks me a question.

"Where's Kit, Princess?"

Marcus goes to tell him to keep quiet but I prevent him from doing so, sniffing as I look at the little boy and tell him the truth.

"Kit's gone, Archie."

The little boy's mouth curls downwards and he is instantly upset. His top lip quivers.

"Don't worry, he'll be back soon." Eli intervenes, placing a goofy grin on his own face and the little boy cheers up immediately.

Marcus instructs that we head to his house where we can talk without fear of being ambushed.

As we start making our way back to the car, a sudden thought hits me that makes me halt in my tracks.

Xavier's body was no longer in the warehouse, even though it had been there a few hours prior.