Chapter 9: Visions

After deciding to remain in Sanjo for one more day, the trio of misfits spend their vacation by themselves before they embark on their journey.

The Onsigra Artificial collided with the ground, its umbra blood running onto the cracked pavement. The hooded figure standing on the back of the winged beast jumped off and landed in front of her fallen enemy’s corpse. Approaching her was a swarm of Artificial comprised of Udpists, Luuxions, and Sarpides, among many others. A crowd of humans ran past the figure, screaming in terror once they saw the oncoming horde of Artificial. The figure stood in place as the people flooded past her. She gripped her sickle tighter and raised the weapon to be level with the brim of her hood. Cries from the beasts echoed throughout the city, the windows of the large towers surrounding them vibrating from the noise. The figure waited until the incoming army was ten metres away before running towards it.

The figure swung rapidly, cleaving through as many Artificial as she could. She dipped and weaved through the crowd, landing a lethal blow with each precise swing. Whatever beasts weren’t victim to the one-person onslaught went directly for the civilians. The body count climbed as the figure continued her attack against the monsters. Black liquid covered parts of her face and stained her green cloak but she didn’t care. She had to finish what she started. The swarm of creatures began to break up. Many were dead but a majority made it through alive to attack the residents.

A circle of ten Artificial formed around the figure, the squad being led by a large Devoake. An Udpist stood on either side of the grotesque snake with the other seven beasts being a herd of Luuxions, which were much smaller than the other Artificial. They growled at the figure, the blue visors on their faces reflecting the dark skyline. The figure remained still, listening closely for the first assault. A roar came from behind her as a Luuxion leapt forward, its claws aimed for the back of her neck. The figure whirled around and thrusted her blade into the chest of the beast. She used her right foot to kick another beast away as she extracted her blade from the flesh of her last attacker. She defended against a flurry of slashes and kicked the Luuxion into the air, jumping after it to deliver a powerful kick to the creature’s stomach, launching it towards its fellow kin and knocking them over.

One of the Udpists swung down at the figure with all four of its arms as she landed on the ground. Quickly, she flipped backwards to avoid the assault. Seeing an opportunity, the figure began to run up the top left arm towards its head, the crimson eyes of the creature focusing on its enemy. It went to grab her but the figure leapt onto its right arms and continued to scale the beast. When she was at its shoulders, she took her sickle and placed the blade against the Udpist’s throat, the tips of the weapon digging into its skin as the figure ran around the back of its neck. It let out a loud roar before blood filled its throat to mute its calls. As the beast fell, the figure guided its descent towards the pack of Luuxion. They were then crushed under the weight of the Udpist’s body. The figure smirked from under her hood.

Another roar came from the figure’s left. The other Udpist was approaching her as the Devoake slithered closer from her right. The figure decided to challenge the Devoake, as it was her biggest threat. She ran towards the large snake and raised her sickle. As the Devoake lunged at her with its open jaw, the figure slid under it and used her blade to hook onto the hollow rib bones that protruded out from the creature’s chest. As the creature straightened its body, the figure was raised into the air and she started to swing back and forth. The confused snake looked for its foe as the Udpist noticed the swinging object on its companion. It reeled back for a punch with its right hands and swung to eliminate the threat. Moments before its fists could crush her, the figure swung one last time and released the sickle’s grip at the apex, flinging herself upwards and away from harm. The punch then landed, the bones of the Devoake shattering as the jagged pieces were pushed deep into its chest. The force of the blow sent the snake-like monster into the tower behind it, its body fidgeting weakly in the rubble.

The Udpist looked up upon hearing a battle cry from above it. It readied a counter attack as the figure fell from the air and plunged her weapon into one of the monster’s eyes. As the creature flailed from side to side, the figure stabbed the remaining eyes until she was certain that the monster was blinded. The panicked beast swung its arms frantically, trying to hit its opponent, not noticing that she was now on its back, holding onto one of its vertebrae. The force of the beast’s frantic movements flung the figure off its body and she rolled onto the ground as the monster rampaging into a crowd of Artificial. The figure lifted herself from the pavement, barely having enough time to realize that a Luuxion was running towards her. She held her sickle out to defend herself, but the surprise attack was too sudden and she was knocked onto her back. The Luuxion leapt onto the figure and swiped at her chest, leaving four large cuts across her skin. The figure wailed out and rolled over, pinning the Artificial down as she mercilessly slashed at the monster’s head, destroying its visor and leaving multiple deep and wide gashes across the creature’s face. Blood dripped from the figure’s chest and onto the cement, where it mixed with the blood of the Luuxion. The figure was seething, tears streaming down her face, as she turned around to see more Luuxions approaching her. This pack was led by an Artificial with large grey horns, six bright red eyes, and paws with sharp talons that clicked with every step it took on the concrete.

“Traitor,” the demonic Artificial growled.

The figure let out another aggressive yell as she met her opponents halfway, a combination of Artificial roars and human screams filling her ears as she prepared to continue fighting.

Nova woke up screaming, sitting up straight in her bed. She was dripping with sweat and panted as her heart pounded against her chest. She looked to her right and saw David on the floor next to the bed, his left hand on the pistol atop the nightstand, scared by the sudden outburst. Carthy was also out of her bed, her weapons lowering to her side after realizing they weren’t in danger. Nova put her hands on her knees, leaning over as she tried to calm herself down. David moved to the foot of the bed. Carthy sheathed her weapons and placed them on her shoulder.

“That’s certainly one way to wake us up,” Carthy said, placing a hand on the post of her bed. Her eyebrow lowered when she saw the condition Nova was in. “Hey, you okay over there?”

“Y-yeah, I-I-I-I’m f…fine,” Nova stuttered, her whole body shaking. David put a hand on her back.

“It’s okay,” David quietly said. “It was only a dream, Nova. You’re okay, you’re safe now.”

“You’re r-r-right. I’m a-all good.”

              Nova got out of the bed and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. David looked at Carthy, who shrugged at the boy. Water from the sink started to run as Nova splashed cold water onto her face. She was shaking less and her heart rate was beginning to go down slightly. After drying her face on the white towel hanging next to the door, Nova looked in the mirror and fixed her hair. She then leaned against the counter and took some deep breaths. The dream has never felt that real before, she thought to herself. She took one last deep breath and regained her composure. She walked out of the bathroom and clapped her hands together.

“Alright,” she said eagerly. “Who’s ready to eat?”

“Nova,” David looked at his partner. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. No need to worry!”

“You sure?” Carthy crossed her arms and cocked her hip to the left. “That seemed like more than just a bad dream to me.”

“Come on, guys, it’s nothing serious. I just had a bad dream, like you said. I’m good now. See?” Nova smiled wide and took her cloak from out of the closet. She put it on, flipping the hair that got stuck under it over top of the hood. “I say we go to the bakery again this morning. That way, we get to see David’s sweetheart.”

She winked at David and laughed to herself. David stretched and got up from the floor, taking his jacket from beside his boots and dressed himself. Carthy tucked the photo lying next to her bed into the nightstand’s drawer and walked to the door after taking a key with her. As she closed the door, she noticed David’s dagger and pistol sitting on the desk. She shook her head and locked the door as Nova jogged down the hallway, calling for her friends to hurry up. David ran after her, too preoccupied to notice the absence of his weaponry. Carthy walked through the hall as she thought about what Nova told her about her dreams some nights ago.

              As the trio left the inn, Nova waved at the front desk agent and smiled at him. The worker returned the favour and went back to work, ignoring the people following the girl out the door. Some sun was able to peek out from behind the veil of clouds that covered the skyline. From the bit of the sun she was able to see, Nova knew that it was almost at the 08:00 position. She stopped and turned to look at her partners.

“Why don’t you lead, David?” Nova gestured for him to come forward. “You know the way, after all.”

              David nodded and walked to the front. He turned left and started walking down the quiet street. There were not many people out at this time, letting the group get a better view of their surroundings. Carthy looked over at Nova as they followed David to the bakery.

“Remember when we first met and how I called you a terrible liar?” Carthy waited for Nova to respond but she was surprising silent. She was looking to her right, away from Carthy, at the other businesses and houses around them. 

“Well, it’s still true so what’s wrong? And no bullshit.”

“It’s nothing,” Nova told her friend as she ran her left hand through her green hair. “I’m good now, really. You don’t have to worry about me, Carthy.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, I never said I was worrying. I just know something’s up and I want an explanation.”

“I already gave you one,” Nova began to sound slightly irritated. “It was a bad dream, end of story. There’s nothing else to it.”

“Was it the same dream that woke you up a while ago? It was the same night we talked over the fire.”

              Nova looked down at the ground, clenching her jaw before sighing.

“Can we please just drop it? I don’t want to talk about it, especially since we’re supposed to be on vacation today. Let’s just enjoy it.”

“If you say so…”

              Carthy continued to feel uneasy as David walked into the bakery. He held the door open for the others and then marveled at the fresh selection of pastries they could choose from for breakfast. Olive came out from the kitchen, with flour on her right cheek, and her face lit up upon seeing David, who was smiling in her direction. Her hair was in a ponytail and she had an orange t-shirt on under the white apron.

“Hey you,” Olive said to David as she leaned against the counter. “Looking for something to eat before you start your trip?”

“Actually,” David replied. “We’re staying for one more day. So if you still want to, we can do something tonight…”

“Of course!” Olive grinned ear to ear. She looked over and saw Nova and Carthy inside the building, looking around the assortment of baked goods. “Oh, are these the friends you told me about?”

“Yeah, they are.” David directed his left hand to Nova’s direction. She was kneeling down to look at the croissants on the bottom shelf of the display near the window. “That’s Nova…and Carthy is over there.” David pointed Olive towards the woman as she examined the many different biscuits at the back of the building. Nova got up and moved over to the cash register.

“So you’re Olive,” Nova said happily, standing in front of her partner. “David’s told us all about you, it’s so great to meet you!” She extended her hand towards the worker. The flattered girl went to shake the hand offered to her, but stopped when she noticed the weapon sheathed at Nova’s side. She pulled her hand back slowly and bowed slightly instead.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Olive said. “Now what would you like?”

“Those moon-shaped things at the bottom there look delicious,” Nova was pointing towards where she was moments ago. “Could I get a couple of those, please?”

“The croissants? Yeah, sure thing.” Olive put on a glove and placed three croissants into a paper bag. She placed the folded bag onto the counter and directed her attention towards Carthy, taking note of the ornaments sitting on her shoulder. “What about you? Find anything you like?”

“These look pretty good,” Carthy raised a bag of six cinnamon buns. She then brought it to the counter and put it down next to Nova’s bag of croissants.

“What about you, David?”

“Could I get some of these yellow things, please? The ones right behind you?”

“Absolutely. These are lemon squares. I think you’ll really like them! At least, I hope you will.”

              Carthy rolled her eye, crossing her arms. Olive frowned due to Carthy’s attitude.

“So your total today is ten Dertics,” Olive told David. Carthy reached around David and placed the payment in front of Olive, looking her in the eyes.

“There you are, ten Dertics exactly. Have a good day, Olive. It was nice meeting you,” Carthy told the worker. She began to walk out of the bakery, followed by her friends, after grabbing her food.

“Hey David,” Olive called out. Carthy’s head dropped as she stopped with one foot out the door. “Can I talk to you 

for a minute? Alone?”

              David looked back to his friends. Carthy moved her right hand towards Olive, motioning David towards her. She then walked out of the bakery. Nova left as well, giving David a thumbs-up as she followed Carthy. David slowly made his way over to Olive, his hands in his pockets. The two people inside were unaware of Carthy and Nova peeping into the bakery, watching from the bottom left corner of the window.

“What did you want to talk about?” David asked nervously, standing in the middle of the bakery.

“I need to ask you something important,” Olive said sternly, her arms crossed. “Are your friends Mercenaries?”

“Well, Nova is, but I’m not sure about Carthy. She just kind of tagged along with us, but she’s pretty good at fighting so I guess it’s possible. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t want you being around those people. Don’t you know that Mercenaries are ruthless killers without moral? They’ll do anything just to make a quick profit. They’re criminals, David.” Olive seemed very disappointed, leaning against the counter with her hands holding her head up. Her green eyes stared at the boy. “Please tell me that you aren’t one of them…”

              David froze. He thought frantically for a few moments and tried to weigh the consequences of his response before coming up with an answer.

“I’m not a Mercenary,” David said slowly, his gut wrenching at the end of his statement.

“Then why do you spend time with those thugs?”

“It’s because…because I knew them before…they were Mercenaries and I care about them too much to just leave them, you know? I’m hoping to get them to change their ways soon and that’s why I’m still around them.” David rubbed the side of his jeans, noticing that he forgot his dagger and pistol in the room. He felt somewhat relieved, hoping that what he said sounded convincing to Olive.

“That’s a relief,” Olive sighed. “If you were a Mercenary, I would’ve…” She cleared her throat. “In any case, I’m really looking forward to tonight! Come back around the 19:00 position. We close early today.” She went around the counter and walked towards David, patting his shoulders and then hugging him. Nova smiled upon seeing this. Carthy shook her head and moved away from the window. “I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah…” David said, rubbing Olive’s back with one hand. “See you then, Olive.” David grabbed his lemon squares and opened the door, waving to the happy worker. Once the door was closed, he sighed and hung his head. He was startled when Nova approached and stood in front of him.

“A hug?” Nova clasped her hands together. “The date hasn’t even started yet and look at you go!”

“Uh…yeah, that was unexpected,” David blushed.

“Is that why she wanted to talk to you?” Carthy walked up behind Nova. David looked up at her, who had her eyebrow raised and her lips pursed.

“Yeah,” David immediately said back. “She also wanted to make specific plans for tonight.” He laughed nervously.

“I see,” Carthy said. “Well, good to hear you’re hitting it off. Come on, let’s get back to the inn.”

              The walk back to the inn was silent. Carthy led the way instead of David and Nova was preoccupied by the smell of her pastries. David didn’t feel like talking anyways. His gut was still in a knot from what he told Olive. He listened to the quiet mumbling of the other residents as they began to occupy the main street. Upon reaching the room Nova began to devour her croissants as she sat on her bed, nodding her head with each bite. David was given the key so Carthy could talk to the front desk worker about a possible extension. David sat at the desk in the corner, his feet up on its surface as he examined his dagger. The bag of lemon squares remained untouched beside him. The door was held open by David’s boot so Carthy could get into the room with no issue. David was focused on his weapon until he heard the door creak shut. He looked over and saw Carthy close it, taking her shoes off.

“I talked to the front desk guy,” Carthy said. “We’ve been extended by a day. Looks like David gets his precious date with the ray of sunshine down at the bakery.”

“What do you mean by that?” David watched Carthy as she walked towards her bed and leaned against the post, opening her bag of cinnamon buns. “Did you change your mind or something? You sounded okay with it last night.”

“I was,” Carthy took a bite out of one of the buns. “That was before I met her for myself.”

“So you don’t like Olive?”

“I thought that much was obvious,” Carthy spoke through a mouthful of pastry.

“What’s wrong with her? She’s really nice, isn’t she?”

“She was to you. Didn’t you notice how she acted towards Nova and I?” Carthy swallowed and took another bite. “I’m telling you, something’s up with that chick and I don’t like it.”

“I’ll be sure to watch out tonight then,” David put his dagger down and turned his chair to face his friends. “What do you think of her, Nova?”

              Nova looked up from her pastries, her cheeks full of dough. She chewed a few times then swallowed her food.

“I think she’s cute,” the Mercenary finally spoke, reaching for the last croissant. “If it goes well tonight, maybe you should ask her to come with us. She can keep you company.”

              David and Carthy both gave Nova a look of disbelief.

“There’s no way that we’re bringing that brat with us,” Carthy shook her head. “You two are more than enough, I don’t need another person to test my patience.”

“I don’t think that’d be a good idea either,” David rubbed the bandages wrapped around his head. At long last, nothing felt sore.

“Why not? I thought you liked her,” Nova was now on her knees, leaning her body towards David.

“I do, it’s just that…I just don’t think she’d want to come with us, that’s all.” David was playing with his dagger again. Carthy stayed silent, thinking.

“But she’d be able to be with you, maybe that’ll help persuade her.”

“She seems happy at the bakery.” David was responding quickly. Carthy stared at him, suspicious.

“I think you should bring it up tonight and see what she thinks.”

“I really don’t think that would be a good time, Nova. I just met her yesterday, wouldn’t that be a bit soon?”

“It’s never too soon to tell her the truth,” Carthy interrupted.

“Tell her the truth? W-what do you mean?”

“Now I think I know why she acted the way she did. She has a prejudice against soldiers or Mercenaries or whoever else has a weapon, doesn’t she? And you lied to her about being a Mercenary to stay on her good side.”

“What? No way! why do you say that?”

“Because of the commotion this morning, you forgot your stuff in the room. You and your gal pal were the only ones in that place without any gear and I can only imagine that having a weapon is a sign of being a Mercenary, right?” She turned her head to Nova, who nodded. “So, you looked like a normal person while the rest of us stuck out. That also explains why she acted differently when she talked to you instead of us. How she didn’t notice your dagger last night is a complete mystery to me but you somehow managed to save face. You sly devil.”

                David looked down at the floor. Nova looked at David, her mouth agape. Carthy licked the icing from her left thumb as the group sat quietly for a few moments, the ticking of the analog clock filling the silence.

“You better start thinking about telling her the truth,” Carthy finally stated, standing up as she got off her bed. “Even the greatest of criminals get caught eventually. What makes you think you won’t?”

              David looked away from Carthy, sighing heavily. Carthy walked in front of him and knelt down to look him in the eyes.

“All I’m saying is that you’re better off if you come clean. You’re just getting yourself into a whole lot of trouble by lying to her.”

“You’re right,” David said quietly, looking over Carthy’s head to see Nova sitting on the foot of her bed, her hands keeping her up as she leaned back. “I shouldn’t have done that. It was wrong, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me,” Carthy put a hand on David’s shoulder. “I’m not Olive.” Carthy stood up and wiped her hand on her leg. “Sorry, but even saying her name makes me feel gross. No offense.”

              David chuckled a little bit. He started to feel a bit better and opened his bag of lemon squares as Carthy grabbed David’s dagger. She carefully placed the blade under his bandages and cut them. David flinched as some of his hair was ripped out. Carthy then examined the wound underneath. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, nor was it at risk of becoming infected. She took the bandages and threw them in the waste bin.

“What do you know, he’s good as new,” she said as she looked back to Nova. “It’s almost completely healed. Just give it a couple more days but he doesn’t need the bandages anymore.”

“Oh thank you!” David began to scratch at parts of his head that were once covered. “This feels so good, you have no idea.”

“I envy you,” Carthy said as she ran a finger across the bandages on her face, smirking.

“I got it!” Nova suddenly clapped her hands together and jumped off of the bed. “Since we’re going to be spending a lot of time together, why don’t we take today to do our own thing? We can meet up in the lobby and go somewhere to eat before David’s date.”

              Carthy’s eye widened and her mouth was slightly open.

“Hold on a second, did I just hear you right? You’re saying we spend a day away from each other?”

              Nova nodded her head, grinning.

“I think we could use it. Considering we still have a long way before we get to Taplica, maybe we all could use some alone time.”

              Carthy stood in silence, staring at the girl. David crossed his arms, thinking about the idea. It seemed pretty good to him.

“Sounds like a good deal to me,” Carthy spoke with enthusiasm as she walked towards the door to put her shoes on. 

“I’ll be down by the shoreline, see you later.”

“I think I’ll look around town some more,” David replied, shrugging. “I kind of got distracted last time. What about you, Nova?”

“Oh, I’ll find something to do.”

              The misfits left the room together and this time, David remembered to bring his weapons with him. As they reached the entrance to the inn, they noticed that the worker wasn’t at the front. A shiny silver bell, however, was sitting on the middle of the desk. The small talk from the group began to fade as they walked out of the building, going separate ways upon their exit.

              The front desk agent sat in the back and overheard the guest’s plans to explore the city. He exhaled and leaned back in his chair, adjusting his purple tie. He closed his eyes. Since all the check outs were completed a while ago, he had time to himself before he had to deal with the check ins. His tranquility was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the bell being rung from the front. He sighed and got up from his chair, peering into the lobby. He didn’t see anybody at the desk and the bell looked to be unmoved. He squinted and looked around briefly before returning to the back. He sat down, believing his mind was playing tricks on him. A few moments later, the same ringing came from the front. He got up quickly and looked into the lobby again. No one was there but he noticed that the bell had moved to his right. He slowly returned to his position in the back and just before he sat down, the ringing started once more. He stared at the chair as the ringing stopped only to start a second later. Frustrated, he looked into the lobby and this time saw that the bell had now been shifted next to the seagull bobble head, which was swaying from side to side.

              The worker focused on the ornaments on the desk, wondering what was happening. He shifted his weight back and forth to make it sound like he walked into the back. After a few seconds, he saw bright blue eyes peer over the counter, staring at the bell. An arm then reached towards it and grabbed hold of the black handle, shaking it violently as the ringing echoing throughout the room. The worker cleared his throat and the culprit ceased her actions, freezing in place as she stared back at the worker. His arms were crossed and he was not amused. Nova slowly rose from her position from behind the desk, her face going red.

“Ma’am,” the employee said. “What did we discuss about you being in the lobby?”

“I’m sorry,” Nova replied, shifting her focus from the bell to the worker constantly. “I saw this and got distracted. I 

just wanted to see what it did. It sounds lovely.”

“Not when you ring it like that, it doesn’t. You can either return to your room or go walk around the city. You unfortunately can’t be here.”

“What if I promised not to talk to people who come in this time?”

“Sorry, ma’am, but that wouldn’t work.”

“What if I sat in this chair in the corner here and didn’t touch anything either?” Nova sat with her knees up in the chair near the front window.

“That wouldn’t work either, ma’am.”

“But what if I " “

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’ll have to remain in your room if you want to stay at the hotel. You just can’t be in the lobby. You caused too much of a disturbance last time.”

“Aw, okay,” Nova started to walk towards the stairs. “But first…” She quickly whirled around on one foot and shuffled towards the seagull bobble head, looking up at the employee as she leaned over the desk. Sighing, the worker nodded, letting the girl flick the seagull’s head one more time. Nova quickly grabbed the bell and rung it three times before scampering up the stairs to her room. The front desk agent breathed a sigh of relief and returned to his station in the back, taking a seat in his chair for some time alone.

              Once she was in her room, Nova realized that she had no idea what to do with herself. She kept her boots on as she lay down on her bed. She stared up at the clock and watched the second hand tick its way around for a few minutes before she began pacing the room. She was humming to herself as she examined her weapon for any damages. She was pleased to see that Madeline was still in good condition. Nova formed a cycle of watching the clock, pacing, and staring out the window which continued for a full position. She eventually grew bored of the routine.

“There’s got to be something to read around here,” Nova said to herself. She rolled backwards off of the bed, accidently kicking the wall and leaving a round dent. She looked at the damage and brought the ironing board out from the closet, using it to cover the hole. Once she believed the evidence was out of sight, she crouched down to go through the nightstand. Making her way from the bottom up, Nova wasn’t pleased when she was finding nothing in any of the drawers. She opened the top drawer out of curiosity and was surprised to find a photo inside. She picked it up gently and recognized it from Carthy’s office in Noam.

              Nova sat on the floor as she looked at the photograph. The same sense of happiness filled her as she scanned the joyful faces of the family. She looked closer at the little girl. Even though she was young, her eyes had an intensity to them, her light brown irises glistening from the sun that day. Nova felt like she had seen the same intensity somewhere else but couldn’t think of where. Turning the picture over, she noticed something written in the top right corner. In black ink were the words “Von Ethoros Picnic, Cycle 1995”. Nova smiled, finally knowing why Carthy kept the photo around. She put the picture back in its place in the drawer, fearing that Carthy was going to return, see her looking at it and get mad at her. She stood up as she closed the drawer and walked towards the open window again. Nova payed more attention to the notepad and pen on the desk as she passed it. She eventually sat at the desk and took the cap off of the pen. Though she was never an artist, she decided to draw to pass the time.

              Inspired by the family photo, Nova began to draw a picture of herself, David, and Carthy in a similar setting. She began to feel more at ease as she continued to draw, time slipping from her as she doodled away. The faces and heads had detail to them but she resorted to stick figures for the bodies. Each line had careful attention placed into them, as she wanted to proudly show the others what she did for them while they were away. Despite this, there was something itching at the back her mind as she worked on her art. Nova ignored it but felt uncomfortable by its presence. As she was adding the final touches to the drawing, she felt herself lose control of her hand as it became loose. It scrawled across the paper and wrote in poor cursive the word “traitor”. Nova snapped out of her mindless scribbling and looked at the paper, screaming at what had been written down. She quickly stood up, knocking the chair over as she rose. Her heart was pounding as she grabbed the desk firmly. She was shaking her head.

“No…no, I’m not,” Nova spoke between gasps. “Stop saying that!”

              Nova took many deep breaths, calming herself down. She picked up the chair and stood it upright before sitting in it again. She closed her eyes and took a few more breaths before tearing off her ruined drawing to make a new one. Using her old one as a reference, Nova began to copy what she had done before onto the fresh sheet of paper. She decided to do the details of the face last, as that was the most time consuming part of the drawing. It only took a few minutes to redraw the bodies and heads. Feeling better, Nova started to add in the details for each person. David only took ten minutes and Carthy was triple that, only because Nova wanted to make sure the bandages looked just right. She did her own head last. She was pleased with what she did for the left eye but she accidently made the right one an oval rather than a circle. She sighed, disappointed that it wasn’t perfect, and tried to draw a better one under it. It still came out as a lopsided oval. Frustrated, she tried again below that one. It was, once again, an ugly oval. Looking at the series of mistakes, she decided to colour in the ovals so they looked a bit better. She dropped the pen as she stared at the drawing of herself. The left half looked normal, like her, but the right side, with the coloured ovals, resembled the face of an Artificial.

“That’s not me! I’m not you anymore!”

Nova threw the pen across the room and placed her head on the desk as she softly wept. Her hands lightly stroked the back of her head.

“It’s only a dream. It was all just a dream…it never happened…yeah, it never happened. It’s okay, I’m okay.”

She comforted herself for ten minutes before she regained her composure and went to the entrance of the room to retrieve the pen. She walked back to the desk, sniffling as she crumpled both drawings and threw them into the waste basket under the desk. She sat down and wiped the last few tears from her eyes as she began to draw a flower. She decided to do something simple and pretty, thinking it’d help her relax. She breathed deeply with each motion of her pen, trying to clear her head as she focused on her drawing. This only took a few minutes. After drawing a circle, some ovals and a few vertical lines, she drew a very basic daisy. Thinking the drawing needed more, Nova drew some clouds then a sun in the top left corner of the paper. For a final touch, she started to draw a hand that was picking a daisy. She thought of Dillon as she drew it, smiling. It wasn’t until the fingertips came out too pointy where she started to frown. Ignoring the flaw, she added in some lines to resemble wind. Feeling satisfied with her work, Nova sat back in her chair and looked at her art. She noticed that the wind she drew looked familiar to her. She leaned in and connected the lines together, adding in other details as she went along. The lines then connected to the hand picking the flower. Details such as fangs and oval eyes were added near the end but to Nova, it only looked like lines from up close. Upon moving back, Nova let out a yell and slammed her sickle into the desk, slicing the paper into two and leaving a large mark in the wooden surface. The lines of wind had morphed into what she recognized as the Enegiss Artificial from her dream. It had its distinctive hooked snout and sharp fangs, along with a black head with grey horns, all of which was coloured in on Nova’s paper. Dillon’s fingers were mutated into the beast’s talons.

“Leave me alone! Just go away! Go away already!”

Nova was choking up as she swung furiously at the desk, splitting the wood further and sending chips flying in all directions.

“You’re not real! You’re not real anymore! Just go…please…just go away…”

She began to cry uncontrollably as her swings got weaker. She no longer had the strength to attack the desk and she slumped to the floor with her hands on her knees, crying over her sickle. She couldn’t understand why she was still haunted by it. They were only dreams, David told her that many times. None of what she remembered really happened, she’d say to herself. She reached for the necklace under her tank top, removing it from around her neck and placing it in her hand. She held back tears as best as she could so she could look at it clearly. The black leather square was still held in place firmly by the brown cloth used to keep it around her neck. Nova clenched it tightly in her left hand. To her, it was a grim reminder that her self-comforting speeches were only used to deny the truth.

 

“I’m not a…a traitor. I was fighting on the wrong side…your side…from the beginning. I found what was right…for myself.”

Author's Note

This chapter is very dialogue heavy so please let me know what you think of it. Any and all critiques are greatly appreciated!