Psychopathy

Chapter 79- A Little Bit Of Sunshine

Isabel ran from the darkness. It was as if the light had been there one second and gone the next. If only she could have known where the darkness had come from. If she only knew what had caused it, she might be able to stop it. But as it was, the darkness crashed over her, smothering her under its weight. She looked around wildly, trying to find a way out from under the darkness. And in the distance, a tiny pinprick of light. And so she ran for it, hoping that little bit of light could save her.

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Ciara was sitting at a table she recognized. It was the same table her head had been slammed into so many times. The same table where she'd been served that wretched food. The same table where she'd been beaten black and blue several times. The kitchen table in the house she had grown up in. And sitting across from her were two of the people responsible for her torture: Simon and Kasey Byrne.

"We heard that you got yourself knocked up," Kasey sneered, and Ciara placed a hand on her stomach. It was becoming such an unconscious gesture. Any time someone mentioned the pregnancy or the baby, her hand drifted there. Sometimes she would do the same thing while she was focused on her work. It was almost as if she needed to do it for her own mental safety- proof that the baby was real and not something her mind had invented.

"That's not exactly what happened," she responded, and Simon scoffed. "Besides, what does it matter to ye? It's not like ye want a relationship with any child of mine."

"Of course we don't. We had to deal with you, and that was more than enough. Why would we want anything to do with your spawn?" Simon wondered, and Ciara ran her hand through her hair.

"Then why are we here? Clearly ye want to tell me something. So why don't ye just get it over with?" Ciara requested, and they both laughed.

"Karma is a bitch, isn't it?" Kasey asked.

"The bastard you carry is going to have your genetics. If there is any justice in the world, it'll be just like you. And when that happens, you'll understand everything you put us through. And you'll realize that our methods were correct after all. And in time, you'll be just like us," Simon said. Before Ciara could deign them with a response, the light around them began to flicker. Ciara watched in horror as the two of them fused into one. The light around them disappeared as they shifted completely into a demon, and when they spoke, a shiver ran down Ciara's spine.

"You'll be like us. Just. Like. Us."

Ciara woke with a gasp, tangled in her blankets and covered with a thin layer of sweat. She put a hand on her heart, trying to calm the racing muscle. She looked up at the ceiling, tracing the constellations above her. But even the star projector wasn't enough to keep the darkness at bay. It seemed to leak from every corner, threatening to choke out the light and stars on her ceiling. And in the very corner of the room, she could have sworn she saw a pair of dark blue eyes staring at her.

He'd kept his promise of checking in on her, though he hadn't gotten close since the first time. She'd only seen flashes. A head of dark hair rounding the corner of the halls at Quantico. A whisper on the wind. His eyes in the middle of a crowded street. Once she'd seen him standing in the corner of her room, but when she blinked, he was gone. And each time she saw him, it got a little harder to convince herself that it wasn't real. It got a little harder to keep the panic at bay.

And now with her dream still at the edges of her memory, she could feel the panic threatening to overtake her. She had to keep calm, for the sake of her child. She'd sworn that they wouldn't know the terror she felt. They wouldn't know why her heart started to randomly race and the breath suddenly left her lungs. She brought to mind the 5-4-3-2-1 method she'd learned from Blake. Start with five things she could see. The stars on her ceiling. Her bookshelf. Her desk. Her necklace sitting on the nightstand.