Lucky and the Killer ✔

That One Didn't Count

Milo placed a kiss on Lucky's cheek, "My, you are a feisty one, aren't you?"

"Buzz off," Lucky groaned. "I could kill you."

"Then why haven't you?" Milo smirked.

"Because I haven't figured out how to open this stupid gate yet."

"Like I'd ever tell you," Milo said. "Why don't you get a little used to me?"

"Why don't you buzz the hell off like I asked?" Lucky said as she fumed by the gate. She was not needy. Was she? Maybe...maybe King was right. She was crazy. She had to be. No, King was the crazy one this time. He just walked away and left her there with the creep.

"P-M-S-ing much?" Milo sneered.

"Ugh, shut...up...I can't hear myself think," Lucky groaned. She could feel the silver burning in her eyes as it crept into her vision. What was wrong with him? What did they do to him? They'd brain-washed him. Like hell she was handing over any of her power. She could hear hear own heart beat throbbing in her ears. It thudded against her ear drums and mixed into other heart beats: Milo's and someone else's coming down the long hall.

"What's there to think about?" Milo asked. "You won't ever have to think about King again. He's gone, love, and he's not coming back. You might as well come over here and give it up already."

"I said to shut up!" Lucky shrieked. She clenched her fists with enough force that his heart beat stopped. Her mouth fell open in shock. "Oh my God. I did it again."

"Eh," a voice came from outside the gate, "don't sweat it. That one didn't count."

"Helix?" Lucky gasped.

"The one and only," he said as he went to work on the gate's locks. "Jeez, they really have this thing bolted up tight. Too bad for them, I used to work here."

"You?" Lucky half-stammered as she stared over at Milo's motionless corpse. "Uh, worked here?"

"Mhm," Helix said as the door sprang open. "C'mon. Let's go. We've got a lot to talk about. I mean...unless you wanna stay here with him."

"Na uh," Lucky said quickly. She slid out of the grated door and began walking along the icy floors with Helix at her side. "You know, I don't know whose side you're even on at this point."

"No one's anymore," Helix said. "Truth is, I was sent back in time."

"Time travel's not possible," Lucky said.

"Neither is immortality or the ability to kill someone with just your thoughts," Helix countered.

"That's fair," Lucky said. She looked at the ornate, but gray, archways above their heads. It was like some sort of frozen fortress—in more ways than one. "Someone sent you back in time. Alright, go on. Who?"

"King," Helix said matter-of-factly.

"King?" Lucky's feet paused and her cheeks burned.

"King sent me back in time to take his own life."

"What?" Lucky yelled.

"Shut up," Helix groaned. "You're too loud. A-anyway, yes, and I failed, obviously."

"King wanted you to kill him? I don't believe that."

"Believe what you want. It's the truth, and I have no reason to lie. I'm about to leave this place."

"Why would King tell you to kill him?"

"Because of what's about to happen," Helix sighed.

"What's...about to happen? Where even are we?" Lucky asked as her feet slugged along beneath her body. So, he was trying to kill King then? "I thought...you were trying to kill King's father."

"Sean, of course," Helix said, "and along with Sean would drop ever resurrection he ever cast—including King. It was the only way to kill King. You never out-rightly would. Do you think you, out of the billions of beings under the heavens and on the Earth, just happened to become Sean's counterpart? That you just happened to develop power strong enough to stop hearts with a thought? I chose you, because it was all King's plan. Sean gave me his power before we even sent Liz. I placed it in you, but it doesn't matter. It failed, and it's in the past. I can't go back again, so you're going to have to fix this."

"Fix this?" Lucky spat. "Why can't you go back again? I call bull. If you supposedly went back in time once, you should be able to do it again."

"Yeah, and you should be able to control your power, but I don't see you doing that."

"Hey, I'm working on it!"

"Besides..., it was a last-ditch effort anyway. Look," Helix said as he held his hand out to Lucky. "King's ring. It's the one you gave him. It's the one that's been missing, and it's been missing because I've had it."

She took the sparkling blue ring in her fingers. It was still warm from being against Helix's own body. The blue glimmers ran along the band like sordid lightning—both beautiful and disgusting.

"I remember this," Lucky sighed. "So, he...really asked you to...kill him. And you agreed?"

"Not me," Helix shook his head. "You. He wanted you to kill him."

"Me?" Lucky stopped walking.

"You. He thought you could. King is going to kill you, Lucky, and you have about an hour left before it happens all over again. You don't have a choice, Lucky. You have to be the one to do this."

"To kill King?" she shrieked again.

"To stop him," Helix said. "Someone has to."

"I can't."

"Like I said, you don't have a choice. I don't know how much you know about King, but Sean isn't his birth father. Obviously, we're not in Kansas any more, Todo. Look around you. Does this look like Earth to you? Does it look like The Kingdom? King's real father is a deity, Lucky. That power in you will corrode you from your core if you don't learn to do something with it. I almost died just getting it to you, and I don't see you sucking souls to stay alive like we did."

"King told me to give his father this power when he asked me for it."

"Did he?" Helix sighed. "Well, that makes sense, Lucky. Power can only be willingly given or forcefully taken in death. If you don't give it up willingly, I suppose Creston will kill you. Though, last time, it wasn't Creston at all. It was King."

"Creston...," Lucky whispered.

"King's real father."

"I can't give this power back."

"You can't give back that power," Helix agreed.