Devil of Clinia

Devil's Reign

Mar's POV

I refuse to believe that I'm back. Everything was going so well. Everything is falling back into place, the place I never wanted to see again. I can't believe many things at the moment. I can't believe Cosmo's dead, I can't believe Aurora is evil, I can't believe anything or worse, anyone.

Every time I try, my trust is misplaced. Even Cosmo just had me fight my friends a bunch of times. Should I be upset that he's dead? I thought he and I were becoming friends. Maybe I was mistaken, and just like always, my trust was misplaced. Every time I have tried to give up, it hasn't worked. I just want it all to be over.

I kneel by Cosmo's body. He looks peaceful, but somber. I still wish he hadn't died. I would rather him in charge than Aurora any day. I can't help it. I lift his hand and put it to my face as I cry.

I start to feel heat radiate through my eyebrows, a lump forms in my throat, and my nose begins to run. I don't try to hold back any tears. I think I deserve to cry after all of this. I've tried to be strong for so long. I've even tried to put up a front to seem tough but I'm not. I'm a scared kid. I act like I don't care but I do. I felt like someone had to be brave and I took it upon myself to fill those shoes. I'm just a scared little kid, I don't want all this weight on my shoulders. It's impossible. I can't do it.

Lawson walks over and pulls me back. He kneels down and pulls me into a hug. I've never cried in front of him before. I weep into his shoulder and sniffle. I wipe the back of his shirt. "I'm sorry I say," "I don't mind. Cry all you need to." "No I'm sorry because I got snot on your shirt." I laugh but it's interrupted with a sharp breath as I cry. He smiles and tightens his hug. "I don't even mind the snot." He says, tucking my hair behind my ears. "Look at me." He says. My face is red and puffy. My eyelashes are drooping to a point and a deep black color.

"Everything will be okay." He says while resting his hands on my arms. "You don't know that." I sniffle. The others are watching intently. "I promise, Mar."

"Mar, Cosmo gave me the memories. You don't have to be the hero anymore. You have friends, we are here to help you. You aren't alone."

"You heard him. He said I'm the one that has to stop her." I wipe away the stream of tears running down my face.

"Maybe the one to take her down, but we will be there the whole time, Mar. Each and every one of us. We won't let anything bad happen. You don't have to hold all of the weight on your shoulders, we can disperse the weight throughout all of us." Ezra smiles. He walks over and places his hand on my shoulder.

Even when I'm crying I still can't help feeling charmed by Ezra.

The world around us begins to build and form. It's Clinia once again.

An evil chuckle echoes through our ears.

"Stay close, you fools. You cannot stop me. I have the power now." It sounds like she's behind me, whispering into my ear. I look behind me but there's nothing there. "That's what you think." I sternly exclaim.

Another laugh is heard, and I stand back up.

"We don't know what she might throw at us, but we have to be ready." I tell the group, who is standing quizzically.

"We've got your back." Lawson gives me an awkward thumbs up and Ezra cheers.

Katrina is still shying away along with Alayah, who seems embarrassed.

Dean was nowhere to be seen.

"Wait a minute guys, where's Dean?"

Suddenly a group of bandits run at us with large swords in hand. With no weapons, we decide the best bet is to run and find Dean later.

We run past many buildings and try to lose the bandits by making lots of abrupt turns in strange places. Through bushes, in alleyways, almost anywhere. We even ran through a building and out the back door. Once we lose them, everyone is out of breath. Alayah, who was in the back of the pack when we were running, had been able to pick up one of their swords the bandits had thrown. Everyone else was hyperventilating with their hands on their knees as they bent over, while Alayah admired the sword. She was proud she had been able to stop and grab it before they caught up to her. She seemingly felt as though she contributed, making up for before, even though she hadn't done anything wrong to begin with.

"Great job!" We commemorate her hard work and dedication to the group. She put her life on the line, which is a great attribute to have when trying to save the world from peril.

"The bandits were glitchy." Katrina pointed out.

"Must have been Aurora then. She must be pretty drained from earlier if that's all she has to begin with. I've seen what these people can do, and that's nothing." I say. "I second that," Ezra lifts his hand for a second from his knee, but drops it back down to continue catching his breath from our escapade.

"How are we even going to stop her?" Lawson asks me, he was the first to recover besides Alayah, who never really needed a minute.

"I doubt we want to do this the way I did it before. I think our first step is finding Dean. If we can't do that, I guess we leave him behind."

"We can't just do that, can we?" Ezra steps up, rejecting the thought of leaving behind his old friend. "I'm afraid we might have to. I'm not a fan of it either. Old Mar never would have done that, I know, so if any of you are confused, I'm sorry but things have changed. We know how that worked out last time."

"Yeah it worked. Cosmo turned out to be a total W, things just went wrong afterward."

"I highly doubt Aurora, the literal devil herself, is going to be 'a total W'." I scoff.

"Listen I'm just saying there isn't a point in saving the world if we don't save-"

"There will be plenty of time to go back for Dean after we eradicate Aurora. For all we know, Dean might get killed before we get to him. He's alone. Everything she's gonna send out is gonna go for him too."

"Woah, eradicate? You mean you want to kill Aurora? That isn't what we signed up for."

"Why not? She killed Cosmo. She is going to kill countless others, and she wouldn't hesitate to kill any of you."

"We can't just stoop to her level, then we would be no better than her. Doesn't seem like something an Angel would do." Lawson interjects.

"Well maybe I'm not an Angel. I'm just a kid. I didn't ask for any of this. You said you would have my back, so just help me kill her and we can go back to our dandy lives. So what if I used to have wings. It was a false thing made up by some weird man who had Universal experiments."

"I think he really knew what he was doing Mar. I don't think you are giving him enough credit." Ezra offers kindly.

"Fine. You don't want to be a part of this? Fine. Go right ahead. Be my guest. Leave. You don't have to help me. I was on my own before, I can do it alone again. I don't need you. I don't need any of you."

It's quiet.

"This is exactly what she wants to happen you know." Lawson walks over to me and tries to put his hand on my shoulder. "I don't care anymore. Get lost." I shake him off.

He seems hurt, and like he won't forget it. I feel sorry, but I can't take back my words. They walk away and I'm alone.

I can feel that they aren't far away, just giving me space to cool off. Except as soon as I'm alone, I feel like I'm in danger. When they come back they may not be them anymore, just like all my other friends in Clinia. They got replaced by fake people. I can't risk losing them, I have to be with them. I run back over to where I thought they were, but where I thought they stood, there was nothing there but sand.

Just sand.