“Lania!! Lania! Wake up, are you okay?”
Lania stirred. It felt like someone was shaking her. She opened her eyes
and met the gaze of Evan, his face washed with concern. Lania realized she was
flat out sprawled on the marble floor of the Temple of Time on her back. Evan’s
hands were wrapped around her right arm, probably where he shook her. Her whole
body ached as she got up and her neck screamed at her. Had she fainted?
“Whoa, Lania, what happened?” Evan asked, relived to see she was alright
but otherwise still concerned. “I mean….you just….collapsed. Did you sense
darkness again?” Lania shook her head as the events from not too long ago flooded
her mind. She turned to Evan. “Where’s Luminous?”
“Huh? Oh, he’s here, obviously,” Evan
gestured to the still unconscious Luminous.
Standing up and IGNORING the cries of pain emanating from her back, she walked towards her foster father
and knelt down in front of him. He looked better, now he just look like he was
sleeping other than being PUNCHED unconscious by a GODDESS. With her small
hands, she got a firm grasp on his shoulders and gently shook him. She wanted
to talk to him, and she needed him awake NOW.
“Oh, little Lania’s awake now, is she?”
a voice called from behind her.
Lania jerked her head and met with the violet eyes of Phantom, smirking
mockingly at her. He waved a hand towards Luminous. “Don’t bother. We tried
waking him up THOUSANDS of times. He NEVER DID. You wanna try out to wake up
sleeping beauty, go AHEAD. But COUNT ME OUT.”
“Perhaps you hadn’t tried hard enough, master thief.”
The two jerked their heads towards the unconscious Luminous – or should
they say now, conscious Luminous – as
he got up, groaning as he did so. He gently removed Lania’s hands from his
shoulders and stood up so he was level with the thief’s face, both expressions
equally grim. Even though he covered it beneath his long blue-gray hair, Lania
could see his single red eye glowing a vibrant red color. She realized what was
going on all too quickly; NO happy thoughts were registered between him and the
thief, and if he showed any sign of weakness or negative emotion, he would
SNAP. Standing next to him now was SUICIDE, but the thief didn’t even seem to
notice.
“Nice to see you too, Luminous,”
Phantom said, but his tone was anything but cheerful.
“I would say the same to you,” Luminous
chuckled joylessly.
“Cut the crap, Luminous,” Phantom
scowled, narrowing his eyes.
“Both of you, STOP,” Mercedes said, emerging from behind. She gingerly
yanked Phantom away, but his gaze was still locked on the mage, even though
Luminous had long since looked away to fight off the darkness. The crimson glow
emanating from his eye vanished after awhile and Luminous’s tense body calmed a
tad. It seemed like he had won, for now. Lania stood up and, before she could
even see what she was doing, wrapped her arms around him.
Luminous was startled for a moment, but after a short while Lania felt
herself being wrapped by her father’s embrace, as well. From behind her, she
heard Aran say: “Hey, Mercedes! What’s going on…..oh, okay.” But Lania didn’t
care about ANYONE anymore; she was with her father, and she never felt so
emotional in her life. She buried her head in his chest and sobbed. She could
feel his body tense, but then relax again. Lania felt his hand pat her head,
and he was muttering something, but Lania couldn’t hear ANYTHING, only her sobs
of happiness.
Luminous brushed her fringe out of her eyes and kissed her gently on the
forehead. His kiss was sweet and gentle, and Lania had forgotten how much she
had missed it. “Lania…” she heard him mutter, his hand stroking the back of her
head. “I’m….really, really sorry.” Lania glanced up at him, her eyes red and
teary. She wrapped her hands around his neck and hugged him. She never wanted
to let go. She had missed him SO much.
“Lania,” Luminous started, and pushed her slowly away from him, his
expression serious. “I….I have to apologize for leaving you that day. I wasn’t
in my right mind…..Look, I just want you to understand that I would NEVER, EVER
leave you, got it? But that day….after I lost control….when I regained control,
the darkness was still swarming around in my brain and…..I thought nothing of
leaving you.”
Though she knew it wasn’t his fault, it
pained her to hear him say that.
“Sooner or later, I grew aware of what I did,” Luminous’s voice was low,
and he had little pauses in between like he had to force the words out of his
mouth. “I never felt so horrible in my life, I swear. As much as I wanted to
return….I knew I couldn’t. I’m like a ticking time bomb now, and when I blow, I
blow. I know that if I continue to stay close to you…..I put nothing but danger
in your life. Do you know that?”
“You don’t….” Lania choked.
“I do,” Luminous said firmly. “You and Penny…..I love you both like
FAMILY. It PAINS me to leave you, but it’s for your own good.” Luminous turned
his gaze away from the girl and fetched something out of his pockets. He seemed
very ashamed when he pressed the object into Lania’s hand. Lania’s bewildered
expression turned into one of shock and disbelief when she was aware of what
Luminous pushed into her hands; the photo of them she had thought was stolen
forever.
“My photo….” Lania muttered, still
trying to get her head around it. “How….”
“Lania, I’m SO sorry,” he muttered, and
shifted away from her slightly like he wanted to go away but couldn’t tear
himself away from his adoptive daughter. His eyes slid over to meet hers, still
confused at why her father had the photo. “After I had another outburst a few
days ago, I wasn’t in my right mind. So I decided to go to your house and see
how you both were doing. You weren’t there, so I decided to look around…..I
didn’t mean to stay as long as I did.”
Lania listened closely, vaguely aware
that behind her, Phantom smirked.
“And I saw the picture. When I picked it up to examine it…..I showed
weakness. I became vulnerable to the darkness, and it threatened to eat me up.
Stumbling into the kitchen, I think….I knocked over the bread and the jam jar
because I was very close to becoming mad. I stabbed myself with the bread knife
so I could focus more on the pain than the darkness….when it became unbearable,
I broke the window and just….got out. When I regained control not long later, I
realized I had unintentionally taken this.” He gestured to the photo. “But I
was too afraid to come back.”
“Excellent-o! Break a girl’s heart and
steal her photo,” Phantom muttered.
“Hold your tongue, thief,” Mercedes and
Luminous growled in unison.
Lania gripped the picture in her hands harder. So that was what
happened…..why her picture, and ONLY her picture (aside from the butter) was
gone. Her father had been in her house, only moments before she was. If she had
been any earlier to arrive back, he would’ve been there. But she wondered
whether her presence would only have worsened her father’s situation. She
wondered if she would have DIED if she had come back any earlier.
“Luminous…..” Lania muttered, gripping the photo. “…..the…darkness will
stop, right? It will go away, won’t it?” At that, Luminous was at a loss for
words. He pondered whether he should tell her…..the fact that he would go MAD,
some way or another. The darkness had already corrupted so much…..but should he
tell her? Mercedes came strutting over, her heels clicking against the cold
marble floor. “Excuse me, Lania,” Mercedes asked, and Lania tore her gaze from
Luminous to look at the elfin woman. “If it’s not too much trouble….can I have
a word – ALONE – with Luminous?”
Lania nodded slowly and got to her feet, smiling a brief smile at her
father before walking away, allowing the two heroes a moment of talk. She felt
dazed and dizzy. It had been so long since she showed so much emotion. Phantom
leaned against the marble walls and smirked at her. “Had a nice chat with ye’
little ‘papa’, my dear?” Lania felt like hitting him, but she hadn’t got the
strength now.
“How did it go?” Evan asked politely when she came to sit next to him.
She didn’t know why, but Evan felt like a brother to her now. She felt
comfortable around him, and even the dragon seemed nice. He was the only one
here that she felt could be told everything. Lania hugged the photo to her
chest and said: “Fine. Good, actually. I really missed Lumi.” Lania felt so
comfortable around him she even used the nickname she gave for Luminous.
“I’m glad,” Evan said, grinning. He looked genuinely happy that things hand
turned out for the better, and Lania smiled at him. Mir was better now, but he
was eyeing Luminous in a suspicious fashion. He didn’t hold distrust for the
man, really, but he was suspicious that his other side might show and hurt his
master, even though Evan had told him it was fine. Evan inched a bit closer to
Lania and put a hand on her shoulder. “But what happened just now, anyway? As
soon as you went close to Luminous….you fainted. You didn’t sense darkness, did
you?”
“N...no,” Lania muttered, nervous to be
talking of this.
“Then what happened?” Evan asked, and Lania shifted her weight
uncomfortably. She didn’t want to be talking of this; she didn’t want to be
reminded of that man…..the one who ruined her father’s life. Aran and Phantom
had joined Mercedes’s discussion with Luminous, but with Phantom there, it was
turning into a downright argument, one where Aran and Mercedes were trying to
settle down. Aran seemed distressed and Mercedes seemed annoyed with the two.
She really looked like she wanted to join the disagreement.
“I….I was just tired,” Lania muttered, and Evan pursed his lips, not
believing her AT ALL. But he didn’t want to press further anymore than he
already had. If Lania wanted to tell him something, she would. But the secret
of her faint must be something only she wanted to know about. Phantom’s voice
shrieking: “Oh, so you didn’t, HUH!?” rang across the hallway. Lania was
suddenly aware of another presence behind her. She jerked her head and met the
gaze of Rhine.
“Oh, Rhine,” Lania muttered, her tense body relaxing. “I…I forgot you
were here.” And she did. With all the chaos with meeting Luminous and all, the
presence of the time Goddess and been forgotten completely. Somehow that made
Lania feels guilty, like she had done something wrong. Rhine smiled,
understanding, and drifted down to meet the girl. “My dear, I understand the
stress you are having,” she said, her sweet voice calming Lania down. Rhine’s
smile vanished. “But I know where you went….when you fainted.”
Lania’s head jerked up. “You what?”
“Went?” Evan asked, confused. “You went
somewhere?”
Lania’s mouth felt dry. If Rhine knew, how many others did? Rhine
explained to Evan, but it seemed all she knew was that Lania entered Luminous’s
mind; she knew NOTHING of the man or what he said. Evan was hesitant to believe
it at first, but hell; he had seen so much WORSE. This kind of thing seemed
kind of NORMAL. Mir nodded in understanding as Rhine talked, probably believing
all of it. Lania was just sitting there in the corner, wondering whether to
fill in the blanks in Rhine’s story.
After pondering in her mind, she decided the best thing to do is to
confide in them; she didn’t believe that bottling things up would make things
ANY BETTER, anyway, so she explained the meeting with the man, what he said,
and that Luminous might not be as sane as they take him for now. After her
explanation, Evan had paled, and even Rhine seemed concerned. She drifted to
the four heroes talking (Or more likely, arguing) and started discussing things
to them, as well.
Lania suddenly was aware her face had paled of color, as well. Trying to
take her mind off it, her hands immediately twitched and tried to find
something other to do rather than lying limply on the ground. Finally, her
fingers went to her braid. It was quite messy and tangled now, so she undid it and
did it up again, not as neat as her usual braid as she had no comb or mirror,
but it looked better than before. Evan shifted closer to Lania, and when she
didn’t push him off, slid his hand over her shoulders, giving them a reassuring
squeeze. Lania looked up at him and smiled a weary smile.
“We should…..probably go see what the others are discussing. It must be
important,” Evan said, and Lania nodded simply. The two rose from the ground
and walked towards the four heroes and one goddess. Phantom seemed to be
shrieking things and Luminous, whose red eye was glowing again, and he was
visibly angry. Aran was screaming to be heard over Phantom to PLEASE CALM DOWN,
and Mercedes was looking away, her face a look of exhaustion. She probably
wished she hadn’t taken part in this discussion, after all. Rhine looked tense
and was trying to calm them all down, because Luminous looked very close to
snapping, and Lania shuddered at the thought.
“See? I told you! He’s a madman! We
can’t trust him!”
“Can’t trust ME? I would think it was
YOU who we can’t trust, thief.”
“Oh please, both of you, QUIET!!”
“What’s going on here?” Evan asked calmly, his arm still giving Lania
reassuring squeezes now and again. When no one appeared to have heard him, his
voice rose, but it was still drowned out by the shrieks. Rhine threw up her
hands, giving up, but the two guys were still going strong. They threw insults
at each other; some that made Lania wince and Evan purse his lips. They
wondered whether they were old enough to even LISTEN to this disagreement.
Luminous seemed to be getting meaner by the
moment, and his cursed eye flashed angrily as he talked. She didn’t even have
to count on the steady beat of pain that flashed horribly at the back of her
mind to sense that Luminous was losing control. The struggle with the darkness
was evident on his face. He even bit his lip as the darkness threatened to make
its reappearance. Phantom, however, seemed to have forgotten that fact.
Suddenly, Luminous threw up his hands. “That’s it! I’ve HAD IT. If you
want me to fight the darkness AND tolerate with him-” he gestured to Phantom. “-you are expecting me to do the
IMPOSSIBLE. I am SICK TO THE DEATH with you ALL. In fact, if you want a hero,”
Luminous slammed his staff on the ground with such force Lania was surprise it
didn’t snap. “go find someone ELSE.”
No comments:
Post a Comment