A Monster Inside Saga - Book Of The Sword - ITV Jekyll And Hyde

14 Part 2 - How the Mighty Fall

The energy grew and grew in intensity, the whole room becoming a violent crimson colour. The Amortidor didn't know what it was doing, all it had was the idea that this was right.

"Do not forget me. Oh do not forget me. Think sometime of me still", Lottie sang, pained slightly, but her voice still like sugar on the air. "When the morning breaks, and the throstle awakes, Remember the maid of the mill. Do not forget me, Oh do not forget me. Remember the maid, the Maid of the Mill... Remember that, I used to sing it to you". The Amortidor paused for a moment, looking at Lottie with child-like eyes, among the hurricane that surrounded them.

"I remember Mama", it said quietly. "Will it make you sad?"

"Will what make me sad?"

"If I hurt the people around me". Lottie looked around her, at Hyde, fighting against the swirling energy around him like there was something in the air attacking him. "It would. It would make you sad". The Amortidor dropped the energy to the floor so it escaped into the corners of the room and melted the ice caps that had gathered in the stonework.

"I'm sorry, Mama. I don't deserve you".

"No, darling", Lottie sighed, walking over to her 'daughter'. "I don't deserve you".

Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, Dance had retrieved his monocane gun from the floor. "When going into battle, take at least one casualty", he whispered to himself, and without a thought, fired the black monocane at Hyde. "One less Hyde to deal with". It took Lottie a millisecond to notice the firearm and who it was pointed at, and another to leap with all the remaining strength in her legs in its course.

The dart hit her right in the chest and time seemed to freeze. Hyde didn't know what to do, so he just shouted, but Lottie couldn't figure out what he was saying. There was an almighty ringing in her ears that covered everything. She could hear roaring and numbness started to roll up her legs. She fell to the floor again, and the Amortidor looked on with a curiosity. As Hyde was distracted, Dance escaped out the door. Keres would kill him if she found out he had come back empty handed, but at least he was alive. For now.

"Lotts. Lotts, listen to me. You can get through this, just heal", Hyde soothed.

"You know how I said they took away my Jekyll side? Switch the Jekyll word to Hyde and it's the truth".

"So, you can't heal?" Hyde asked, becoming more worried by the second.

"Ha, the penny drops".

"What can we do then? You're my sister, think of something". Lottie chuckled, and Hyde noticed the skin on her shoulder blackening cell by cell. Because, unlike when black monocane touched a human and they would just...disintegrate, a Jekyll could stand it for longer as monocane was already in their veins. But it would be painful, oh so painful, like all your bones breaking at the same time and all your cells being turned inside out.

"That's my brother. Fighting until the end. And it's near Robert, I can feel it".

"No, no, it's not. Never say die. Never", he whispered, with increasing horror. "What if I absorbed it. What would it do?"

"If that was even possible it would turn you insane. The black monocane is a thousand times stronger than Hyde monocane. It wouldn't kill you, I'll give you that, but you would go into a permanent bloodlust, a permanent Hyde state. No more Jekyll, no more family, just a chain around your neck and an empty MIO cell. That's what happened to our grandfather, Henry, he absorbed the monocane from Maggie when Tenebrae injured her. Look what happened to him".

"It'd be worth it for you. I can't believe that you were hiding right under my nose from the very beginning. I'd take it... for you". Lottie shook her head, touched by his generosity, but knowing that she could never live with the responsibility.

"Do me a favour before I do pop off. Show me Jekyll, just for a moment".

"Most people just ask for Hyde".

"Well, I'm different". The redness from his eyes disappeared and his Jekyll side resurfaced once more. And for the first time in forever Hyde didn't fight to get out again.

"Come on then. Do something clever. Dodge the bullet", Robert said.

"Not...this...time", she answered sadly. "There's no magic bullet this time".

"Everyone will miss you though. I was going to take you to Ceylon, to see the Harrigan River. It looks so beautiful in the Summer, and I was going to take you down there in one of the little sailing boats".

"It sounds... wonderful. And we will get there Robert, everyone will. You'll have to wait a while though, and you'll have to wait for it without me, but we will get there".

"Wait, what?"

"Bye, bye, my brother", she wheezed, trying to think of something inspirational, yet humble to say for the last time to Robert. "Keep being the hero, and kick Dance's ass the next time you see him for me". Slowly, she closed her eyes and tears started to form in Robert's eyes. He got up, unable to look at her and knew his casualty list was adding up. His touch was poisonous to everyone he knew and, one day, he would find himself with nobody.

...

"Mama?" said the Amortidor monster from the corner of the room.

"She's gone", answered Robert, the tears now rolling down his cheeks. "She died for me".

"But Mama's not gone".

"Yes, yes she is. There's no going back".

"No, she's not". From its fingertips it released a spiral of golden energy that reached Lottie and slowly, but surely started to push away the blackness of the monocane that infected all of her skin. Robert noticed, and crept beside her, watching in awe as the black monocane lifted away in a golden sheet. Lottie let out one breath, and then another, and then another. Her eyes then shot open to Robert smiling above her.

"Hello sister", he beamed, in a mixture of sobbing and happiness.