The Prince of Darkness

Chapter 18: Repercussions

I hadn't left my room. The only thing I had done was contact Skye, and told her the last planet I had been on, and that we were gone now, but that might give her a section to look, and it gave her a starting place. I had slept, and drawn. That was all. I kept thinking about how easy it had been for me to do that, and not care when they were killed. It terrified me.

Today I was completely in sweats, and my hair was thrown up into a messy bun. Papers scattered all over the floor. I heard a knock on the door.

"No one's home." I say.

I see the door slide open, and Lincoln stood in the doorway. My room was dark, so when he opened it light poured from behind him outlining his silhouette.

"Come on." Lincoln says.

"I don't want to." I say.

Lincoln sighs, then comes in. He sweeps me into his arms, and carried me over his shoulder.

"No." I half-heartedly protest.

When Lincoln sets me down I know I'm not in a place I had explored on the ship.

"Where am I?" I ask.

"You're in my room." Lincoln says.

I sit up immediately.

"Your . . . your room?" I ask.

I look around. There wasn't really anything to tell me about him. It was plain, and simple. Clothes hung in the closet. Bed wasn't made, but there was nothing else.

"Why did you bring me here?" I ask.

"That night when you met your parents you heard a voice didn't you?" Lincoln asks.

"Yeah. It told me to do it, they abandoned me, and were wealthy at my expense. Then it told me to kill them." I say.

Lincoln nods.

"That's how is started for me." Lincoln says.

I look at him confused. Was this his way of telling me he didn't want me going down this path.

"Why did you kill my parents? You stopped me from doing it, and then you did it anyway." I say.

"You don't want to go down that path. Even though they deserved to die you shouldn't have their blood on your hands. I had to kill them, because if we let them go they would let people know you were a crystal-user. And people would know you were an unregistered crystal-user." Lincoln says.

"You haven't put me into the system yet?" I ask.

"I was asked not to." Lincoln says.

I nod.

"What's wrong?" Lincoln asks.

"I should be upset that they were murdered, but I'm not." I say.

Lincoln nods.

"Does it get better?" I ask.

"What?" Lincoln asks.

"All that I can think about it choking them. Does it get better? Does it stop?" I ask.

"I never think about it. It never bothers me." Lincoln says.

"Yeah, well I forgot who I was talking to. You blow up planets and call it progress. You have no regard for human life. You just want to rule the galaxy." I say.

"That's not what I want to do." Lincoln says.

"What?" I ask.

"I don't want to rule the galaxy. There's a lot of it, and it's a lot of work." Lincoln says.

"Then what are you trying to do?" I ask.

"Restore peace to the galaxy." Lincoln says.

"You confuse peace with terror." I say.

"We have our opinions." Lincoln says.

He stands up, and turns his back towards me. We're silent for a little bit, but then he turns around.

"Lets do something." Lincoln says.

"Like what?" I ask.

Lincoln shrugs.

"I don't know yet, but I'm in charge of this ship, so we can pretty much do anything." Lincoln says.

I nod, and get up. We head towards the control room. Lincoln went to the pilot chair, and looked up something. I stood back looking around the station.

"Got it. Lets go." Lincoln says.

"What are we doing?" I ask.

"We're going for an unscheduled stop at a planet. And it's not a garbage planet. It's much better." Lincoln says.

I smile. The ship enters hyperspace. I see the crew run into the control room, and look around startled. When they see Lincoln at the helm they seem to calm down, but are still concerned.

"What's going on Sir'?" The crew asks.

"We're making an unplanned stop." Lincoln says.

I know some of the guards wanted to protest, but they didn't dare. We stopped above a planet, and I felt myself gasp. It was beautiful. It was green, and lush. There were bodies of water everywhere.

"Stay here. We'll be right back." Lincoln says.

"We're not taking the ship?" I ask.

"No, this planet doesn't let people land on it, we're working on that. We're taking a smaller ship down to land on the ground." Lincoln says.

"Alright." I say.

We get into a smaller ship, and Lincoln pilots his way down to the planet. We land hidden in large grass, and then we make our way towards the water.