DarkWing (Final Editing in Progress)

Chapter 25

The hum tore through my head, ravaged my mind. I felt blood explode in my nose and flood onto my mouth and chin. I fell into the darkness, I fell into the mystery, I fell into my past.

"He was there..." The day I was born. I began to experience a strange, out of body flashback. I was standing at the hospital bed, my mother screaming on the table, my... dad holding her hand.

"He was there..." Christmas when I was four years old. I got my first dog. She was a beautiful husky. Winter. I named her Winter. I smiled, I could see my dog again. My smile faded. I saw him standing behind me, smiling.

"He was there..." A picnic when I was 6. I learned how to ride a bike. We had brought it to the park, and Vaine had helped me after we ate chicken breasts that we had brought with us.

I found myself clenching my fists tightly, my nails digging into my hand, blood dripping from my palms. It was all coming back suddenly, a blindside of memories. It all came back, and with each memory of him, I clenched my fists tighter. My head ached. It felt as though it was going to split in half. I put one bloody palm to my temple, trying to stop the flood, trying to stop the pain. It was no use.

"You know," Vaine started to speak. His dark, as a matter of fact voice angered me, fanned the rage in me. "I really liked your mom." My face had been writhing in pain, but with the mention of my mother, my eyes shot open, and I glared at him. He was playing with me. That was his biggest mistake. "You and Shadow are only half-siblings though. Shadow's mother, my wife, she found out about my affair with your whore of a mom."

I roared and reflexively darted towards him, the fury burning through my face. In a split second, I was half-way across the room, when suddenly Shadow nailed me from the left side. She shot at me and knee'd my rib cage, causing me to fly diagonally, forward and to the right, and I rolled viciously on the ground. Multiple ribs were shattered now, and I felt blood slowly begin to well up in my throat. I laid on my back, and gasped for the air Shadow forced out of me. Vaine walked and stood over me. I could see the irises of his eyes gleaming in the darkness. It was unsettling. It was wrong.

"When Shadow's mom found out, I had no choice but to stop seeing your mom. Of course, I couldn't help myself, 'cause she was so..." Vaine smiled kinkily. I wanted to rip his sad little throat out. He could see my anger, my lust for his intestines in my hand. He kneeled and put his right hand on my throat, gently choking me. "I just couldn't stay away from you two. Well, you, I didn't care much for, but your mother, ooooh, I got a special tender spot just for her." I wanted to kill the bastard. I wanted to kill him, but I couldn't breathe. "But then..." His grip loosened and I could breathe again, but he kept me pinned to the floor. He averted his eyes. "Then Shadow's mom died... And her dying wish was that I wouldn't abandon Shadow for your family, that I would take care of her."

"Fuck you..." I forced out. His eyes turned to me again. They taunted me. "You just used us, then left us, and look at what you've done to Shadow... You call that taking care of her?"

"She can see again, can't she?" I looked past Vaine to see Shadow standing a few feet behind him. She was watching, actually watching. "She was born blind. It was a miracle. I have Corrector Corps to thank." My blood went from burning to seething.

"Yeah? And how many lives did you have to take in order to do that?"

"They lined up to throw their lives away," Vaine said darkly. "Desperate people, lazy people, all driven by greed. They lined up, willing to take some mystery chemical to make a quick buck. There were those with dying family members, though. I helped them. I cured their loved ones."

"But the experiments still died. And there was one cancer patient you didn't help." Vaine's eyes sharpened. I saw something change in him. I saw a weakness. "You let her die, wither away in that hospital bed of hers. I may not remember a lot, but I do remember some things. I remember you two had something, something that you fucked up." I felt his grip tighten. He grasped my throat powerfully for a few second, but then he relaxed again. I could hear him laugh quietly.

"You know. The day you walked into Corrector Corps. I saw you and I couldn't believe it. Pure chance. Never thought I'd see you two again. I actually had a patient, but for you, I made myself available." I thought for a second. his words echoed in my head, "made myself available."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. He smirked.

"I... You could say I disposed of him." My seething blood rushed to my muscles and bones. Instantly, I felt myself empowered, and couldn't feel my injuries anymore.

"How could you. How could you kill so many without any suspicion." He laughed loudly now.

"You would be surprised how desperate some people are. What they are willing to turn their heads away from just to save their own hides. A lot of people have cancer, or loved ones with cancer. They just wanted a cure. You should know how that is." That was the tipping point.

I grabbed his neck, and headbutted him as hard as I could. He staggered backwards and fell onto his back, stunned. I jumped to my feet when Shadow overtook me. She tackled me and we fell to the ground. I slashed her back and she shrieked in pain. I grabbed where her left wing connected to her body, and began to tear away at it with my claws. She screamed and slashed my face, three parallel cuts slicing over my right eye. I pulled my hands to my face, and pushed Shadow off of me with my feet. I kept my right hand over my eye and hopped back to my feet. She stumbled to regain her balance. I brought up my left fist, and waited for her. She dashed towards me, and I slid to the left. She threw a punch that barely missed my face. I grabbed her arm with my bloody right hand, and spun behind her and put her arm behind her back. I grabbed her other arm, and I kicked the back of her knees and made her drop to the ground. I placed my foot on her back, and pulled her arms backwards powerfully. I could feel her tendons and nerves rip, one by one.

"Shadow," I began. "You were my friend, my mentor. The old you. The 'fake' you. I would have been proud to have called you my sister." She hissed at me. She knew it was over, she knew she was beat. It was all over. I pushed hard with my foot, and pulled her arms back, and in one powerful move, I tore both of her arms out of their sockets. She screamed monstrously. They were still connected to her body, but they were unresponsive. I let go of them, and they fell limply to her sides. Then, I grabbed her wings. I wasn't done yet. I tugged on those, and pushed again with my foot. Through her chaotic tears, I could hear her yell.

"Stop! Fucking stop! Please!" It pleased me to hear her pain, to hear her desperity, to hear her beg. I pulled back as hard as I could, and I ripped the wings off of her. Blood gushed violently from the sockets where her wings used to be. She screamed even louder. She didn't sound human anymore, she sounded possessed. I dropped her disconnected wings to the floor next to me as the blood poured down her back and created a pool around her. I walked around her so that she was now facing me, grabbed her neck with my right hand, and picked her up. I squeezed her neck tightly, I had to in order to hold her up. She hissed in my face, it was very unbecoming. Her skin grew paler and thinner. I could see vains under her skin pulsing black and disgustingly.

"I'll see you in hell." I threw her forward and she shattered the blinds and window behind her. She screamed violently as she fell, and we could hear her for at least five seconds. Her hatred, anger, torment, pain, bounding off the other buildings, tearing through the air around us. Then we heard a car shatter and an alarm go off. She no longer yelled.