City of Darkness Part 8

The world ceased to exist the very instant that the sword was exposed to air.

_{“C’mon Luke…I thought you were smarter than that,”} Demone hummed, mocking him. _{“It’s almost as if you WANT me to control you.”}

“You’re….n-not….going….to win!” Luke growled, fighting as hard as he could to escape Demone’s control. The thing that finally brought Luke back to reality was a piercing scream.

“…Alisa…?” Luke said slowly as he looked up at the girl…or rather, the person he had believed was a girl. It was only then, with a gash in the chest and the tattered remains of a shirt lying on the ground, that Luke realized that Alisa was really a boy.

“Luke, I told you to get out of here! Go, while you still can!” Alisa yelled, trying his hardest to find his sword after it had been knocked away. Before he could find it, however, one of the chimeras threw him to the ground.

“ALISA!!!” Luke cried out in sheer horror. To his complete and utter surprise, this won him a chuckle from the other boy.

“Alex. My name’s Alex. I may as well tell you so I can hear someone call me my REAL name one more time…because I don’t think I’ll get out of this…” Confused by this statement, Luke began to approach his old friend as the second chimera noticed him.

“Luke…promise me you’ll be good…take good care of my aunt and the other kids…” Alex said, trying in vain to push the first of the monsters off of him. The creature clearly didn’t like this act, as it bit into the boy’s throat and ripped it open. Instantly, blood flowed forth like a geyser and stained the room a deep red.

“ALEX!!!!” Luke screamed as the chimeras surrounded the corpse.

“LUUUKE!” The sound of a young girl’s voice sent a chill down Luke’s back and turned his boiling blood to ice in less than a second as he recognized who the voice belonged to.

“MELODY, IT’S NOT SAFE! GET OUT OF HERE!!!” the young boy yelled, suddenly feeling very protective. Interested by the appearance of another voice, one of the chimeras turned its back to the corpse and instantly noticed the little girl frozen in place across the room. It began charging at her and, in that instant of protective rage, Luke allowed the evil sword to take control. The sword’s power quickly overwhelmed him, and the boy blacked out instantly.

By the time he regained consciousness once again, all he could see was deep, dark red. The ceiling, the walls, the furniture…everything was dripping with blood. As he looked around in shock and horror, he began to notice strange chunks of red and pink scattered in the pool of blood he was standing in. In a few places, yellow gunk was floating on the surface of the blood. Curious and concerned, Luke began to poke through the mess. In an attempt to find a clue about what had happened while he was unconscious, he looked behind the blood-soaked couch. He fell to his knees as soon as he saw, splashing himself with even more blood.

“Oh…my…gosh…” Luke mumbled, trying to cover his face with tiny hands. Before him was the almost completely destroyed carcass of his old caretaker, covered in teeth marks and deep wounds. Behind the body was a pile of chimera bodies, five in all, thrown together as if their killer didn’t care where they landed up. Each of the creatures was missing an eye and all of its paws. “W-wait…wait, what happened to Melody?!” the boy said, frantically looking around the room. With that, Demone chuckled.

“I told you kid…you aren’t capable of controlling me yet. That was the single most beautiful carnage I have ever had the pleasure of taking part in, though!” Luke’s blood froze as his eyes locked on to a figure lying in the room’s bloody lake. It was small and fragile-looking, blood staining the child’s once silver hair deep red.

“Mel…o…dy…” Luke choked on his words as he approached the figure. Sure enough, Melody’s tiny body was sprawled out in the blood. As the boy walked over to her body, he heard someone calling his name. He couldn’t care less who was calling, nor did he wish to acknowledge the person’s calls. All Luke could bring himself to do was cling desperately to the lifeless body of the girl he had come to consider his little sister. Finally, Masamune’s voice cut through the boy’s thoughts.

“I’m so, so sorry…I tried my hardest to stop you, but I…I couldn’t…”

“…I….I did all of this…?” Luke whispered, as if he was afraid that he’d wake up the child in his arms.

“Ah! Marissa, I found him!” Brett called out as he ran to Luke’s side. “You sure gave everyone a panic attack there…is Melody getting through the shock of the attack okay?” He smiled and put a hand on Luke’s shoulder only to have it instantly pushed away.

“Brett….I wasn’t able to save her…s-she’s…” Luke began, trailing off as his eyes filled with tears. Brett gasped and stared at her body, completely shocked.

“…and…what about Alisa…? Is…she…?”

“He. Alex died protecting us…” Luke choked out as he began to cry.

“…he? But I thought…” Brett trailed off, getting more and more confused. He opened his mouth again just as Katelin ran over and flung her arms around Luke.

“Please tell me you’re okay…you and Brett are my only real friends…” she sobbed, crying uncontrollably. Luke couldn’t manage to speak any longer, so he just continued crying and clinging to Melody’s body. Eventually, Brett pulled Katelin off of Luke and told her to give him a little space.

“Luke, you shouldn’t worry your friends like that….and never, EVER go off on your own again,” Marissa said, making one of her almost nonexistent rules an emphasis point.

“Marissa, please…be nice to Luke,” Brett said in a soft voice. This shocked the woman, causing her to gape at the child being addressed. “Luke’s…lost a lot today.”

“Oh my…you mean…my nephew was killed…?” Marissa said, her voice trembling slightly.

“I’m sorry…I…I couldn’t save him…” Luke managed to say, trying his hardest to breathe normally. Marissa took a deep breath before finally saying, “…he wanted to save all of the kids here…because he considered everyone in this orphanage his family…”  Having said this, she burst into tears and held Luke against her.

“And…and Melody…d-died too…” Luke stuttered, going limp in Marissa’s arms. The woman sighed and held the little boy closer.

“Oh Luke….I’m so sorry…”

“I…have to leave.” Luke realized everyone was gaping at him as soon as he said that. “What…?”

“…we’re going to have to protect everyone even more than before…I cannot allow you to leave,” Marissa declared, her voice more stern than it usually was.

“Why would you want to leave…you can’t…” Brett said, watching the younger boy sit straight up.

“I can…and will. I HAVE to until I learn how to completely control Demone,” Luke said in a monotonous voice, still staring at Melody’s body.

“But…but why…?” Katelin asked, reaching out to touch his shoulder. He noticed her trembling fingers and leaned back saying, “One day…one day you might understand…”

“You’ve GOT to be kidding…we’ve ALL lost family, you’re the one who doesn’t understand!” Katelin yelled, then quickly covered her mouth.

“Look…I…I can’t remember what just happened…I…I saw Alex get killed…and…and they turned to Melody…but after that…nothing. The next thing I knew I was standing alone in a lake of blood. I don’t know what caused all of this, but there’s a possibility that I did it…and I don’t want to end up hurting one of you.” With that, the boy gently put Melody’s body down and stood up, staring sadly at her pale eyes. “I…don’t want it to happen again…”

“…I…see. Brett, Katelin, go get some of the spare clothes we have laying around and a backpack…Luke will probably need them,” Marissa said, not looking at any of the children as she stood up. Before any of them could say anything, she walked into the kitchen and came back out with a water bottle. “Well?” The two ran off, leaving the woman with Luke.

“Marissa, if you’re trying to change my mind…”

“I won’t try. No, you’ve always been a very determined child…I know I have no chance at changing your mind. I just want to make sure you’re able to survive as well as I can,” Marissa said as she handed him the bottle. Once Brett came back in with the backpack, she took it into the kitchen and put a week’s worth of food in it. “This should help, but you might have to find more for yourself…” With that, she handed the backpack to the little boy she’d come to love as if he was her own son.

“Thank you…thank you so much…for EVERYTHING. I WILL come back some day, I promise…” Luke said, hugging the bag before putting it on.

“You’d better, Luke. I’m…I’m really going to miss you,” Brett said, his voice shaking as if he was fighting back tears.

“I’ll miss you too, Brett…thanks for being the best friend a kid could ask for…” With that, Luke walked out the door and disappeared.