Indigo

XXIV

I silently cursed myself for being so hasty. I looked around.

"Um... I guess you can uh, come back now..." He appeared behind me. My head snapped around.

"Do you have to do that? So what, you can teleport now?" He looked hurt.

"Well yes. Who do you think built this as well?" He gestured to the room around us.

"You?" A smile crept onto his face, but it looked unnatural, like it should never have been there in the first place. He laughed insanely and jumped in front of me.

"Of course I did! And if you want, you can too,"

"What?" He'd picked up my interest immediately, like a hound on a fresh scent.

"Oh, yes. And I could teach you... for a price, of course," I laughed, knowing it had been coming.

"What price?" He debated silently with himself over what he wanted from me.

"I want to know what you've been seeing,"

"What? That's it?" I'd been expecting something much more costly.

"I want to know how you've been progressing. Isn't that natural for a father?" I was getting really sick of that. The others had told me he had this complex about being all of our father. But giving us our powers didn't mean we were his.

"Fine. They're mostly about your people; where and when you're going to be," I hesitated to tell him about my friend's capture.

"Go on!" He said, "I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help," Yeah, right.

"I-I had one a couple of nights ago. My friends, Portia and Robin, someone had them,"

"And?" He prompted.

"That person-no that thing- was torturing them. And that thing had blue eyes," Midnight laughed to himself, like he had an inside joke that I could never make him share or admit to.

"All right," I faced him, "Your turn to hold up your end," Midnight walked over behind me and placed his hands over mine.

"All right, love. What do you want, Indigo?" His voice whispered in my ear.

"I want my parents back, you monster," He shook his head.

"I'll ignore that last comment, sweetheart. Now, what's stopping you?"

"There is no way to get to them,"

"So? What are you going to do about it?"

"I can't do anything! I don't know how,"

"Sure you do!" His voice encouraged.

"No! I really don't!" He laughed.

"Well, not if you don't try. How could you get to them?"

"If there were stairs..."

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"You do know that I've never done this before, right?"

"Oh, yes, yes, yes, of course. Picture it there: wherever you think those stairs should be," I did as I was told, and before I knew it, a wrought-iron, spiral staircase swirled itself up to the next level of the building. I looked back at Midnight.

"Well, go on, love. You don't want to keep them waiting,do you?" I excitedly leapt up the staircase. What had I been thinking? This man wasn't here to hurt me. he honestly was trying to help me. I dashed up the stairs, my heart echoing throughout me.

"Indigo! Wake up! Please!" Lucas's voice bounced off the walls and I stopped where I was. Looking around, he wasn't anywhere near me, or even in this building.

"Whatever you're seeing, believe me, it's not real! Listen to me! I don't know what he did to you, but you have to wake up!" His voice broke, and what felt like arms began shaking me where I was, yet no one was there. Realization dawned on me. I turned around.

"You drugged me..." I spoke slowly, my eyes trying to find Midnight at the bottom of the stairs. I ran the rest of the way up, only to be greeted by an empty balcony.

"They were never real, were they?" Black began to tint the edges of my vision. I guess whatever he gave me was making its first attack.

"Of course they weren't! Who do you think I am, dear?" He appeared in front of me and handed me a sword from out of thin air. The blade glistened like the moon. The hilt had a beautiful obsidian guard that was embedded with sapphires and rimmed with gold.

"What? You want me to fight you?" I asked. He rolled his eyes.

"No, I gave it to you so you could sell it. Yes! Do you accept the fight?" I didn't really have an option as I saw it.

"Yes," With a flick of his wrist, a golden blade with a black, ruby encrusted hilt appeared in his hand.

"Have you ever dueled before, Indigo?" He asked. I slowly shook my head.

"Well, good, we're discarding the rules today. However, I won't be going easy on you, and I am experienced, so just try to hold your own, okay?" I nodded and our fight began.

Parries and strikes were made for a while until I got a hit in and sliced his left arm open above the elbow. I was better at this than I would have imagined. I got distracted and he used my lack of attention to get a blow in with the flat of his blade to my ribs with such force that the wind was knocked out of me and I fell to the ground, gasping for air. Midnight towered over me.

"Get up, you little-" I swept his feet out from under him. His head hit hit the floor with a satisfying Crack. I scrambled to my feet as fast as I could, trying to regain my balance.

The darkness in my eyes was becoming much more prominent and I staggered, trying to get to the stairs and away from the beast behind me. I tried my best to run, but Midnight was quicker. He pulled me back up the stairs and began beating me with his fists, his sword abandoned on the other side of the landing. The beating continued for what felt like forever, until eventually my legs gave out and I collapsed. He picked me up like I weighed no more than a three-year old, picking me up and pushing me against the rail that divided the balcony from a fall that would probably shatter my neck and kill me. He kept pushing me farther and farther over the edge until my waist was nearly over the cold metal.

"What do you want?" I gasped through a closing throat. Talking wasn't smart, especially considering his hands were clenched around my throat. He chuckled.

"What I've always wanted from you, my daughter." I recoiled at the name he'd chosen to call me.

"And what would that be? This is the first time I ever remember meeting you face to face."

"I want you to love me-" He was dangling me over certain death. Did he even understand that?

"-be my family, Indigo. I want to be loved. Don't I- don't we all- deserve that? To have someone who loves me?" He was the only thing keeping me from falling, now, but I couldn't help my words.

"How could you ever hope that I'd have any nice emotions towards you, you monster!" That was the last straw for him. He smiled sadly at me.

"I'm sure you'll fell differently when you wake up, my girl." He loosened his grip on me and I fell.

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Hey there!

So here's what it's like: I have lots of school stuff this year, and my next few months of weekends are probably going to be busy, but I will try my best to update over the weekends. I will try very hard to update during the week, but I'm terribly sorry if I can't. Thank you guys for reading and I'll see you later!

-AJ