Relentless

Chapter 46

We rushed down the hall and into the kitchen, Emma's dry dress forgotten. Their father was the first one to stop. He didn't even enter the kitchen. Kane and Peter ran past but I turned in time to see his eyes light up. At first they looked clouded but they soon cleared to their natural dazzling purple pigment.

He's a Celestial. I had known that Peter had a Celestial parent but it was hard to tell until now. After years on earth their natural appearance seems to fade. What their earthly appearance is depends upon the individual but in time they fade completely and I do know that using their abilities speed along the process which is why Ancient Celestials often out live other Celestials.

I want to find out more about what is happening to him but my presence is drawn into the kitchen. I was totally unprepared for what I saw.

Their mother lay on the ground, bleeding. Her mouth was open in a silent scream. Tears rolled down her eyes as she stared in horror at her daughter. Emma just kept stabbing her mother. In the stomach. In the chest. Over and over and over. Oblivious to the splattering blood all over her clothes and the kitchen cabinets, staining her mother's clothes. Her arms were torn up with gashes after using her arms to protect herself. Emma's hand was gleaming with red liquid as she gripped her knife. Her face was twisted into a wicked grin that greeted her brothers when they entered the room.

They stood in the doorway a moment in shock before sprinting to their side. Peter shoved Emma back as Kane held his dying mother.

In a flash Emma turned on him and used her knives to make two calculated slashes in the air, testing his reflexes. When he dodges them, her eyes twinkle. "This is going to be fun."

"No, Emma. Emma, snap out of this. Please, I beg of you." Peter pleaded.

"Oh? You beg?" She spat back. "How pathetic. I will not stop until you are begging for death." She lifts her knife to her lips and slowly runs her tongue across the blade. A single drop of her mother's blood rests on the tip of her tongue.

"You're not my sister." Peter said evenly.

I'm not sure if he said it for himself, to steel himself so he can stop her at all costs or if he is trying to get through to her. Maybe he just wants her to admit that she is not his sister.

Personal feelings aside, he had to protect his mother. The only problem is that he made two mistakes in their fight.

Her red curls frame her blood-spattered face. She lunged at Peter who redirected her hand to smash into the counter, knocking the knife from her hand. She yelped in surprise. That's when I realized that it was her scream we heard earlier not her mother's.

He shouldered his sister out of the way. She grunted, trying to push him back but lacking the strength. She glared at him and as she did I saw the gears turning in her head as she chose her next move.

She launched herself at Peter. He froze. She collided into his chest, grabbing for the knife. By the time he lifted his arm away from her, her fingers were already digging into his hand, clawing it off

As they both toppled backward, Peter eyed his mother lying on the floor behind them. The moment before Emma hit the ground, she fell through a portal and hit the floor hard on the other side of Peter, who hit the ground a second after.

He's keeping himself between them. Smart. I could only wonder as to why she is driven to attack her mother of all people. Maybe it was like the last time she lashed out and her target was the closest person to her. I'm not sure if she's still trying to attack her because she locked onto her as a target or for the sake of hurting Peter. Either way the personality is very twisted.

Peter's hand is all scratched and bloodied now. He stands slowly. They're both breathing hard. Emma stays on the ground another second. I search her face for a tell-tale sign of what she is thinking but get nothing. I figured that she is trying to form a plan to get past Peter. I was sure that that wasn't going to happen until I saw the menacing grin that grows on her face. It hovers a beat too long to the point that it is beyond unsettling.

With one swift kick she knocks the knife block off of the counter, scattering an assortment of knives clattering on the floor behind her. When she lunged backward for one, Peter couldn't resist opening a portal in front of her.

That was his first mistake.

With a knife still in her hand, the portal opened behind him. Peter gasped as he realized that he just played straight into her hands.

She lands crouched on the ground. As she stands to slash their mother, Kane shifts his arm into an abstract form to extend it. He smashed his arm into her hand, sending the knife flying, without ever leaving his mother's side. Emma's smile leaves her face, replaced by surprise.

What scares me more than her surprise is the look of fury on Kane. That is an expression that I have seen often but it has never scared me more than it does right now. It is just so raw and unnatural on his youthful face.

When Emma reached for the knife as it spun through the air, he created a portal behind her and kicked her into it. With the hilt of the knife in hand, he instinctively held it in front of him defensively.

That was his second mistake.

The scene that is unfolding before me doesn't seem real. Between the sound of tearing flesh and the drip of blood as her rib cage collapses, I am petrified. Peter wears the same emotion as he catches his sister as she falls into his arms. He throws the knife away although it is clear that she will no longer try to grab it. She trembled in his arms. Trembling for breath. His eyes are glassy with tears as he realizes that her injuries can't be undone. The pool of blood that drenched his clothes is proof enough that she is too far gone.

He can't heal a fatal wound.

"Emma... Emma!" In response she meets his eye. Her eyes are soft once again. She's back to her usual self. I can't believe that they let her go. She's dying but they granted her that mercy. They are allowing her to die as herself.

She gave him a faint smile before violently doubled over, clutching her ribs as a spot of blood exponentially grew. She was losing blood fast and strength. Peter held his hand to her chest in vain. Blood stained his fingers as he frantically searched for a way to save her.

"I'm so sorry, Emma. This is all my fault!" Peter began to mutter. Emma tried to console him but her voice was weak and he couldn't stop until he said what he had to. "If I had only told our parents- if only I... I-" A single tear escaped his eye and that one tear was enough to break him.

As he cried over her, Emma made out one last short sentence. "I'm sorry." Her voice was breathy but clear.

"No, don't say that!" Peter cried. "It's my fault! All of this! Don't talk like you've given up because-" his voice broke, and my heart broke for him. "Because I won't give up on you ever."

She smiled faintly. Her strength was leaving her quickly. "That's my big br-"

She never got to finish her thought. Peter broke down weeping. By the time his tears lessoned and he gained the strength to look at his mother, she had already passed in his brother's arms. Kane was glaring at him as tears silently streamed down his face. The tears seemed out of place because he made no acknowledgment of them. Not even a whimper or sniffle.

When Emma's eyes lost focus, the father's footsteps returned to life but by the time he entered the kitchen the memory began to blur. The scene became distorted as it faded from view.