Elysian House: Edge of the World (3)

Chapter 7: The Vessel

Jasmin

"Fuck," Viola breaths. And I feel the same way.

She's staring at Ricky, wide-eyed, hands trembling. Much like how I reacted when Ricky came to me, telling me he knew the next part of the prophecy. I don't know what it was about the situation, but some things came back to him in different times.

I don't know what made him come to me, though. Maybe it was because Olivia was my girl. But for whatever reason, he came to me.

"What do you mean answer the call to the Darkness? She'll become the next host?" Demanded Viola.

Ricky shakes his head, pursing his lips, and watching Viola carefully. He probably had deep sympathy for my girlfriend's sister. I mean, it's not easy news to swallow. To know your sister was affiliated in some way with an entity so dark and evil... it shook me to the core knowing this myself.

"Not a host, a vessel."

"What's the difference?"

"Viola, the only way to truly defeat the Darkness, and be rid of it, is to kill it, while it is trapped within a body."

"We are not killing Olivia," I jumped in. I didn't mean to act so aggressive with the kid, I forget sometimes that he's only 10 years old.

"No," he says. "Because she is not a host for it. A vessel is different. She will take the Darkness out of Riley, and she will place it in someone else."

Viola isn't having it still. "Well, why? Why can't we just let it go?"

"Then we'd be right back to square one," Ricky answers wisely. It was strange being lectured by a kid. "We need the Darkness to be somewhere we can find it when we need to destroy it. Olivia has... a connection with it."

"Why can't I do it?" I ask, knowing full well I was very much familiar with the Darkness. I've had it for two lifetimes.

Ricky shakes his head as I'm speaking, like he already knew I was going to say that. "Olivia's connection is different. Your soul is too suseptible to it. If you let it in again, it can easily manipulate you because you've had it. Olivia's connection with the Darkness isn't by contact, it's by something else."

"Like what?" Viola asked.

Red puts in his thoughts a moment later. "Well... she was the one that ressurected Elpis Zoe. She was evil at one point, remember? Maybe that's the connection. Her connection with a darker side of her."

"It doesn't matter," Ricky says. "The point is Olivia needs to be the one. Someone who is close enough to the Darkness to move it, but not too close that she can be possessed again."

"Will she... will she..." I know what Viola was trying to ask, but she just couldn't bring herself to complete the question. Quite frankly, I didn't want to hear the words come to life. Because that would mean the possibility would become real.

"She won't die," Ricky assured both me and Viola. "But she will be significantly weakened. I urge you to take caution."

Viola turned to me. Her blue eyes are filled with conviction. She has her mask pressed against her forehead, pushing back her brown hair away from her eyes and allowing everyone to see the sweat trickling, dirt and blood sticking to her skin.

"Where's Olivia?" She asks me.

"She was with Maya and Bradley last I saw," I say. "Are we going to tell her?"

"Of course," Viola says, and her voice gets higher when she says that, as if she couldn't believe I'd even ask. "It's her decision. If she wants to, she can. But if she doesn't, we're not forcing her."