A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(39)

Lucy flew backward, away from the dreams and visions and back toward the real world. It was a bit like coming home from Zerkalo, like her mind reuniting with her body, except this time she was not awakening in her room, but in the cave system. She shivered in the cold and silence, unable to wash away Mechta's white eyes staring into nothing.

"You see now who your prince is," Koshmar whispered, reminding her just who had sent her those visions. 

"J-Joon wouldn't do something like that," Lucy said. But there was no hiding the way her voice wavered and strained through her throat, because she'd seen him do it.

"When I returned home from the fool's mission he sent me on, I found out that my daughter was already ripped away from me. I was informed by the court men what Joon had done. How he had twisted Mechta to his will."

"You take her power from her. She wanted to try as much as Joon wanted her to," Lucy said with a shivering voice. 

Koshmar rushed forward, his teeth bared. "You dare say that to me? She was a gentle creature. She would have never thought of such a scheme. She would have rather stayed home embroidering than to fight in the war. It was all Joon's doing."

Lucy nearly laughed. The girl she had seen was a warrior. She had been hard and shrewd and ready to battle, just like Joon. How could Koshmar have not seen who his daughter truly was? How could he have thought such glinting eyes were gentle and retiring? How could he have thought embroidery her passion when it was so clear that she was a general?

Koshmar roared with anger and swung his arm in a circle. Though nothing happened in reality, Lucy still felt a slight tugging at her mind. Grimacing, she pushed back against the pull, shoving Koshmar's presence out of her brain. He had caught her unaware before, taking her to see that horrible image of Joon and Mechta, but now she was expecting his powers. She could resist them, though for how long, she didn't know. 

A warm hand slid into hers, fingers threading. She turned to see Joon, still at her side, staring at Koshmar. This version of Joon was soft, scared, rushing through so many emotions that he could barely keep his eyes from spilling over with the tears that built in them. It was a completely different face from the burning eyes and icy mouth of the man who plotted with Mechta to destroy an entire army. 

Koshmar giggled, his voice raw and crazed. He stood next to Mechta's corpse laid out on the stone slab.

"I showed Lucy everything, dear Joon. How you betrayed me to my deepest core."

"Please stop," Joon whispered.

Koshmar sneered. "Never. I couldn't kill you outright, not when your last death did so much damage to the dream worlds. So I hid Mechta's body away in this world, safe and forever as beautiful as she was in life. I locked your mind here with her, haunted and tortured. Cursed to forever be the monster you truly were. You body would rot in our world, while your mind lived forever with what you'd done."

Joon dropped Lucy's hand, and as their palms separated, he drew in a breath that shook his whole body. Tears spilled down his cheeks as he stared at the girl on the slab, his hand sliding up to clutch his chest over his heart. 

"I don't remember this. I don't remember it," he gasped out. "I feel like my heart is dying, but I don't remember doing any of that." He looked at Koshmar, pleading, looking for some way away from the pain that haunted him for reasons he could not remember.

"That was an unfortunate side effect of your transformation," Koshmar said. "I wanted you to wallow for all time, unable to die or move on, but it seems that making you a monster changed your mind and made you forget your monstrous deeds." He clenched his hands, rage making him shake. "But your heart would never forget. Its dark deed could not untangle from Mechta, and so the darkness started to spill out and fill this world. Then, when the terror was too much, it made its way to our world as well. It corrupted what once was good and bred new demons, until now we all experience just how rotten your soul truly is."