Thicker Than Water....

Chapter 15 - The Force

Morning. 

I had laid awake for an hour, not wanting to ever to get out of bed again.  I couldn't face anyone.    Vittorio's rejection was agony, the likes of which I had never known.   I felt such shame and degradation.  I tried so hard to push it to the farthest reaches of my mind, lock it up and throw away the key.  Baby Si was dying to make a witticism, but thankfully, she remained quiet.  My resolve slowly returned as the minutes ticked away, and I decided to get out of the house for a while.

Dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and my trainers, I pulled on my jacket and headed downstairs.  Kula was waiting for me at the bottom.  I avoided her eyes and brushed passed her.  "An w'er do you t'ink you are going, Sienna?"  Her voice was stern, authoratitive.

   "Out," I replied, keeping my head down. 

   "Oh no, you are not!" she said.

    "Watch me."

   "Stop her!"

Ugly stepped in my path.  I really didn't feel like arguing.  "Move out of my way, Ugly. Please."  He grunted in defiance.  "I'm just going for a walk, for god sake!"  Still, he didn't move. 

Kula came up beside me.  She grabbed my arm and whipped me round to face her.  "W'at have you done!" she growled.  She started pulling at my jacket collar, pawing my neck.

   "Stop it!" I said, trying to stop her hands in their persistant probing.  She wouldn't desist from her tugging and pulling.  "I said stop it!"   I caught her wrists, but she wrestled free of my grip.

   "Hold her!" she ordered Ugly.

As the ghoul towered over me, I felt a surge of adrenalin building. And something else.  Something totally alien to me.  I stared, as my body started to glow with a fiery red hue.  It felt like electricity firing through every vein, artery and capilliary in my body, but without the searing pain associated with such energy.  Kula screamed as the touch of my skin seared her flesh.  She jumped back, cradling her injury.

Ugly had his enormous, taloned hands on my arms, holding me as Kula had ordered him.  And everything suddenly went into slow motion.  I watched in horror as his massive frame was catapulted backwards through the vestibule and slammed against the heavy oak door.  My entire body was lit like a neon sign.  I was terrified. 

A hand grabbed me from behind.  I turned, oh so slowly it seemed, and found myself staring into Vittorio's eyes.  My mouth formed a silent scream.  My eyes travelled to his hand, where I expected to see it blistering, melting.  But it wasn't.  This power I harnessed was not affecting him.  I looked back up at his face and saw him staring past me.  I followed his gaze.  The crumpled frame of Ugly was writhing in agony on the floor.  But....it wasn't the snake-eyed, hulking creature any more.  It was a writhing, gelatinous mass,  shifting then  jolting in violent spasms.  Distantly, I heard Kula screaming, but I was transfixed by the sight before me.  It was...changing, morphing. Simulating time-lapse photograhy, flaxen hair sprouted  from the once bald head, and it's size more than halved.  The red serpent eyes first became opaque, like cataracts, before they changed to an impossible icy blue. The morphing process slowed, and dimmed.  A man, possibly close to six foot in height lay shuddering, whimpering, spent.   My voice finally fought it's way through the chaos, but it was only a breathless  whisper. "Dante!"  A flash, as if I was hurtling through hyperspace, crossed in front of my eyes.  Forgotten memories flooded my mind.....a house in the middle of nowhere; Peter: Kula; Ugly: not Ugly.  Words echoed in my ears - that is my blood in your veins....he is a Fleshling....Voodoo....you are my daughter.... 

Oh my god! This man had said he was my father!  Instinctively, like a child reaching for their parent, I bent towards him.  He shakily lifted his hand.   Vittorio's grip tightened and he pulled me back sharply. Micro-seconds later Dante suddenly and violently combusted.  

I screamed.  The inferno raged mercilessly for about 30 seconds before it was sucked into a vaccum and vanished completely.  I stared at where Dante's body had been. There was nothing left. No skin or bone, no clothing, no ash....nothing. 

My stomach heaved.  I was vaguely aware that Vittorio had released me, but I was  too busy wretching.  Dry wretching. 

I slumped to the floor, exhausted.  My hand trembled as I slipped a loose strand of hair behind my ear.  I glanced across to the bottom of the stairs where  Vittorio stood over Kula.   She was cowering on the bottom step, whimpering, pleading for mercy.  I struggled to my feet.  Vittorio turned when he heard me moving.  I couldn't  look at him. 

   "Are you alright?" he asked.  His voice was cold.   I nodded and shuffled nearer.  "This witch has some explaining to do!" he growled.

   "She's not a witch," I said quietly. "She was Dante's familiar."

   "You knew who that was?"  I saw his hand pass my face as he pointed in the direction where Dante had been consumed.

   "Yes...no...I mean.  I didn't remember until I saw him a moment ago."

Vittorio grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to look at him.  "You were compelled?"

I considered his words.  "Yes....I think so."

He sighed heavily, releasing his hold on me.  "He was a dangerous man, Sienna."

   "He said he was....my father," my voice broke.

   "What?" 

Vittorio turned sharply to face Kula.  "You were part of this deceit?"  She cowered further back.

   "What do you mean deceit?" I asked.

He turned back to me.  "That.....thing... was not your father, Sienna."

   "He...he was an Elder!"

   "Once, yes!  A great one at that.  But, he broke the council's treaty. And he most definitely was not your father."

My mind was reeling.  It was all to much to take in.  Dante; more betrayal; a treaty; this...this inexplicable force which lived inside me; and Vittorio..... Vittorio! He was awake!  And walking in the daytime!

   Frustration balled up in the pit of my stomach.  "You have to tell me what is going on here, Vittorio.  And I mean everything  this time."