Centum Malediction

Chapter 6-13

"How can I even begin to say how I'm feeling? How can I begin to tell you what happened?" The tears ran down Alexander's face. "I made a promise, and that promise was broken. We left her. We had no choice, we had to escape, such selfish thoughts." Alexander sat in Satori's bed. He had escaped the crowd of mourners by slipping through a wall unnoticed. Satori was already in her room, a computer now on her desk. She sat there facing Alexander, her expression sharing his pain.

"Brianna is dead." Alexander choked on his words, his sobbing began to intensify. He had been so cold before, so logical. Once the realization hit he lost control. He just wanted to run away. He didn't even mean to phase into Satori's room, he just had to get away from the others. Satori slowly glided across the room and sat next to Alexander on the bed. She wrapped her arms around him and held him as he cried hopelessly. "Brianna's dead and the seal is missing. I told her that I would protect her. She was innocent." Alexander didn't even know what he was saying anymore. The words just spilled out as he cried heavily into Satori's embrace.

The pain he felt. It was just like when he lost his sister. He thought he had grown smarter, stronger, better, but in the end he was just as worthless as he was when he was a child. The innocents died because of him, his sister, his parents, and now Brianna. It should have been him. The golem was focused on him. She was just caught in the crossfire.

"Even now Heather mourns the loss of her friend. I should be consoling her. Instead I'm here, hiding, because I failed." For the first time Satori's lack of speech made it easier to communicate with her. The more he spoke the tighter she held him. He knew deep down the pain he felt, she had felt it too. She had been where he was and would do anything to help him. Alexander was so concerned about helping others he never thought of asking for help himself, but Satori was there for him regardless.

"We need to go back!" Fiona's rage burned. She stood in the center of the gloomy crowd, yelling and screaming like a child.

"Fiona calm down!" Chelsea tried and failed to soothe the raging beast. Fiona was like a monster.

"Someone died on my watch and the killer got away!" Fiona yelled what they already knew. Michael stood on the sidelines, Chelsea in his arms. He was sad like all the others, angry that Matt got away, and guilty for Brianna's death. Abigail sat on the couch of the living room, only instead of television to watch there was Fiona. Heather sat on the opposite end of the couch from Abigail looking dully at the wall quietly, as if she were staring off into space. Lom had already left to go home. He was as angry as the rest of them, but chose to deal with his grief alone.

"That's enough! You need to calm down." Mr. Reynolds stepped in front of Fiona and tried putting his hands on her shoulders. She took a step back, and then with all her might shoved him. Mr. Reynolds lost his balance falling backwards into the wall with a loud thud. Abigail screamed, still jumpy from the fight. Ms. Aoki ran to Mr. Reynolds side making sure he was okay, then cast a dark glare to Fiona.

"I'm sorry." Fiona was breathing heavily now. "The rage. I should go." Fiona turned to the doorway and began walking towards it when suddenly she collapsed falling to the ground. Chelsea left Michael and ran to her side.

"She's breathing." Chelsea explained.

"What happened?" Michael found it difficult to concentrate on what was happening. Brianna's death was still fresh on his mind. It reminded him of Prae. He killed her, and now Brianna died. Was her death his punishment? He was also thinking about what Matt said. He wanted to recreate the world because of people like Michael. If he hadn't been such a bully maybe Matt wouldn't be so insane.