Estranged [Completed]

Shattered

There was so much happiness. Not a high, not ecstasy, but happiness. Wholeness. She was home again. She heard Fenn shout out, but then he was with them too. And Kas. They were all finally together again. Everything was perfect. Everything was right. Kalei opened her eyes. She wanted to see their beautiful faces. Kas and Teia lay across her left leg, faces turned away. But Fenn was on her right, eyes fixed on her with an open, dead stare. Dead.

Kalei screamed. She pushed them off and scrambled back, but then she slumped over and heaved as her stomach tried to vomit. Kalei crouched there, retching, crying, her darkness ripping through her in complete chaos.

"Kalei! Run!"

Kalei looked up and saw Xamic and Terin struggling outside the apartment. Terin had both of Xamic's hands in his own, his body between Xamic and Kalei. He repeated, "RUN!"

Instead, Kalei charged at them. Terin cursed and tried to get in her way, but Xamic let go of one of Terin's hands and sidestepped as the teen lost his balance. Kalei crashed into them both and they all went down.

In the tumble, Kalei felt Xamic's arm close around her wrist. At some point, while she was out of it, both of her gloves had come off, and now his skin pressed against hers. She felt his darkness coming for her. She raised her defenses, but they were so small, so insignificant next to the mass of violence mounted against her.

"NO!"

Terin's hand was on her other wrist. His darkness rushed through her and met with Xamic's head on. Terin cried out. Kalei thought it was from the collision, but then saw Xamic's left hand still clamped onto Terin's right. She felt a subtle "snap" echo from Terin's darkness.

Kalei froze. She recognized that sound. She looked to Terin, his face contorted in a mix of pain and surprise. Then his darkness was rushing out of her, pouring through her left wrist and into Xamic. Terin was fading. His hand frantically tried to pull away, but Xamic wouldn't relinquish his grip.

Yet Terin still had time. There was so much darkness in him. He had about as much as Xamic, maybe even more. When pulling his hand away didn't work, he tried to redirect the flow, attempting to push it into Kalei, but his darkness was sucked through Kalei and into Xamic's other hand.

Terin's reservoir began to run out. Kalei felt his presence dwindling. She felt all his sorrows, all his regrets brushing past her as they rushed up Xamic's arm. Terin's head dropped. His body sagged. A last whisper of darkness fled past Kalei's heart.

He was gone.

Kalei felt Xamic release her. She heard him step away as he screamed and hooted and shouted. It didn't feel real. None of this could be real. She felt as though she was drifting away from this world, Xamic's antics happening in some distant place, the screaming in her heart happening to someone else...

Xamic cried out, "DAMN!"

Kalei pulled her eyes away from Terin's limp form and saw Xamic jumping around the room, knocking cans and utensils off the shelves. His hair was full black now, not a hint of blonde left. Bursting with energy, he sprinted at a wall, running so fast that he ran up it, made it halfway across the ceiling, and then came crashing back down again. The fall didn't seem to faze him, though. He jumped up to his feet and stretched out his neck and arms, bouncing back and forth from foot to foot like a boxer ready to fight, or a dancer getting ready to dance. His grin seemed to be permanently fixed onto his face.

He said, "This is perfect! So fucking perfect!"

He laughed and turned that grin onto Kalei. As he approached, she stood up, looking away from the eyes that greedily appraised her skin.

Kalei held out her hand. "Here," she said dully.

Xamic's eyebrows came together. As though it were a joke, he laughed and asked, "What?"

No emotion. No rage. No sorrow. She had nothing anymore. She was nothing. She continued to hold out her hand. "This is what you want. Take it."

"Hey! Wait a minute! There's supposed to be anger here! What about revenge? I just murdered your grandfather. You just murdered your dear husband and two little nieces." He shoved her and got right into her face. "How does that make you feel?"

She had no response for him, emotional or otherwise. She repeated, "Take it."

He spun away. "NO!" He slammed a can of peas off the shelf. He turned back, grabbed her by the shirt, and picked her up, shaking her violently. "You're Kalei Distrad! You won't stand for this! You want me dead. I know you do. You want to kill me with your own hands." He looked down at those hands and grinned as he looked back at her.

She didn't respond. She was none of those things anymore. Her chest was one hollow cavern, stoic and uncaring as a cold wind blew through.

The anger returned to his face. He slammed her into the shelf, knocking a cascade of first aid supplies off the top and sending them crashing onto his head. A plastic bottle broke open on his skull, a gush of clear liquid pouring out onto his head and shoulders, releasing a strong scent of alcohol as it fell. "C'MON, Kalei!"

Kalei didn't give him a response. Her eyes traced the pattern of wetness on his shirt as the liquid expanded its reach across the fabric.

Xamic released her, grabbing a nearby shelf and throwing it across the room. He threw his arms up and screamed with rage. "No. NO! You've ruined the moment. You've ruined it!" He grabbed a second shelf and threw it into the first.

Kalei's eye alit on an old Zippo lighter sitting on a box near her hand. She picked it up. Fire seemed like a fitting thing to bring into this world. All consuming, all erasing fire. This was it. She was finally going to die. Xamic was going to kill her, and she wouldn't have to be an Estranged any longer. There was nothing left for her anyway.

Then she remembered what Marley had said to her on the roof, how he had been so mad at her for sitting there, waiting to die. 

Right now, you're the only one I trust to help me protect my son.

She let the cold nothing in her heart encase her like a suit of armor. She decided she wasn't going to let Marley's kid die, and she wasn't going to let the man who killed Fenn live.

Xamic's hair was still dripping wet, the drops falling across his torso and legs. His back was to her as he raged and kicked at the shelves. She flicked the lighter open and tossed it at him.

His body went up in flames. The fire gave a quiet whoosh and flew towards the ceiling, devouring him entirely before slowing to a steady, ferocious burn.

Blinded by the sudden light, it took a moment for Kalei's eyes to adjust. She shielded her eyes and blinked several times, and when her vision returned, she lowered her hand to find Xamic in the center of the room, his body writhing in the flames, his clothes reduced to scraps that were already falling away in the hot blaze. He turned and glared at her with lidless eyes, his mouth fixed in a silent scream.

But he was not dying. Even as the flames consumed his flesh, it regenerated and returned, caught in an endless cycle between exposed muscle and fresh skin, muscle, skin, muscle, skin...

Kalei walked toward him. She plunged her hand into the flames and closed it around his neck. He had so much darkness now. She couldn't believe he was capable of holding so much. Now that Terin's had combined with Xamic's, it was a force to behold. But it was still finite, still limited, and at the moment, it was spread throughout his entire body, actively battling the insatiable flames. Only a paltry amount remained to protect his heart.

Xamic weakly grabbed her arm in his own, trying to pull her off even as he stared at her with wide, boiling eyes. But in this moment, Kalei was stronger.

As she reached her darkness forward, Kalei thought about Terin, she thought about Fenn, she thought about two little girls who died, and a little boy who was scared for his life.

She closed her darkness around his heart and crushed it.