Tara's Tall Tales

Chapter 9: Fears

Howling. More, and more howling......

Tara couldn't process the large amount of pain that swept through her body. Her hands were numb. Her legs were burning. Her insides felt poisoned and her head felt like it's been whammed into a hydraulic press.

The pain just continued to go through her body. Slowly but painfully.

Tara just howled and screamed in pain. She'd never felt this damaged before except for one time.

That one time when Cyria awakened Darkron......

Tara silently wished that someone could kill her for real now. Immediately. ASAP.

Nothing. Just the pain that was now eating at her soul.

One word escaped Tara's lips as her consciousness slipped and the pain burned her away, her body being swallowed by the shadows as her soul was corrupted by darkness

 A single word that Sandy needed to know, and probably already knew.

Darkron.

______

Sandy never knew that his sister was getting killed by corruption when he opened his eyes, for he himself saw nothing. Like literally nothing.

He couldn't hear his own breathing. He couldn't see anything except for black.

All of a sudden, he felt a weird force that was tugging at his heart.

No - it was tugging at his soul, his true essence.

Pain burned through Sandy's body. The poor boy howled, yet no sound came out from his mouth.

There was no way he's going to be able to survive this much pain. After what he'd saw about his past, he wondered about the pain that had burned through his body once before. A pain that resulted in death.

Darkness. That was the only thing Sandy could conclude, as well as the only thing that Sandy could feel and sense. Darkness.

Sandy only realised that the pain was just a deadly mirage as he closed and opened his eyes once again to the sight of a very tired Mortis.

'Holy-' Sandy shouted, only to get a slap in the face as an answer.

Wait! Wait! Sandy heard Gene shout through his laughs. His soul - he's alive!

Sandy blinked hard. Sunlight started to flood into his eyes, causing his vision to become rather blurry.

'Where... Am... I...?' Sandy coughed. 

His vision started to focus. In an instant, he saw Mortis and Gene, who were both standing right in front of him.

'He's alive,' Mortis confirmed.

Sandy tried to stand up, but pain burned through his body as he did so.

'Where is Sister Tara?' Sandy asked, his voice rather weak.

We'll talk about Tara later. Gene told him as he took out his Magic Puffs and shrouded Sandy with the magical mist. We've gotta get you healed first.

'Healed......?'

'De-corrupted,' Mortis corrected. 'Your soul nearly got swallowed by the shadows earlier. The darkness has been eating at your essence slowly but steadily, with a sudden increase of force within the last few hours. The shadows first came to your soul in the morning.'

'And that was?'

Approximately 5 hours ago. It's literally 3 p.m. right now. Gene informed him.

Sandy thought about that. According to Mortis and Gene, 5 hours ago, his soul was starting to be swallowed by the shadows.

5 hours ago, it was 10 a.m, which was late morning.

5 hours ago, he had just woke up from his sleep through the night, only to the sight of a shadow hawk that nearly killed his elder sister.

5 hours ago, he'd unleashed a full out sand tornadoe that was tainted with the magic of the stars. The dark magic of the stars.

5 hours ago, Tara held his hand and caused them both to enter the memory. The vision. The Death of The Past.

5 hours ago, he heard Tara's silent prayer. A prayer just so that only he won't die. A prayer for him and not Tara herself.

5 hours ago.

'Where is Tara?!' Sandy screamed, tears splashing down onto the tarmac from his watery eyes. His violet-pink irises became a darker shade of purple as his soul started to fill with worry.

'Hold up, little boy,' Mortis tried to slow Sandy down. 'Stay positive. Think only positive thoughts. And I truly mean it.'

But Sandy shook his head. How in the name of the stars was he going to be able to keep calm? The dark purple in his eyes became even worse as his breathing became faster than hyperventilation.

Sandy! Calm down!! Gene shouted. We can't let the darkness take you like how it took Tara!

Sandy stopped breathing almost too quickly. The purple faded from his eyes.

'What darkness?' Sandy's voice was near to shattering.

Mortis lowered his hat until it covered the half of his face. Only then did Sandy realise the weird marks on the half-vampire's arms.

Purple, creepy marks that looked more like deadly scratches and scars.

Mortis's lips curled into an eerie smile. His yellow eyes shown like fireflies under the darkness of his hat. Fireflies that were nearing their death.

'Now you can probably guess what's happened, can you?'

Sandy couldn't believe neither his eyes nor his thoughts.

'Darkron......'

Almawt waldurur min makhalib wahashi alzili. Gene muttered in Arabic, which was weird considering that his words were truly being formed from laughs and whines.

Sandy didn't need a translation at all.

Death and damage from the claws of the shadow monster.

'What happened to Tara?!' Sandy screamed. He knew that it's probably a forbidden question, considering what's happening and what has already happened, but he just wanted to know so badly.

'Look at your arms.'

Sandy looked down to his arms, which were all purplish-black.

The colour of corruption. The colour of the darkness.

The colour of Darkron.

'How-'

'Tara shown you too much. She's taken too much of the dark magic to bring you the truth about your past,' Mortis answered in a grave tone. 'The truth could be the key to the end of this madness, yet it doesn't mean that it would be swell.'

'I've asked this too many times earlier, but I'll ask it again,' Sandy growled, the sadness in his voice gone as though washed away by a storm. His soul filled with anger and hatred. Anger and hatred towards Darkron. Anger and hatred towards his and his sister's fate.

'Where, in the name of the mighty stars, is Sister Tara?'

Gene sighed and looked down. Sandy looked down at the ground along with him and saw shadows in the patterns of coiled-up dragons. Not a good sign.

Dragons.

Dragon fire.

One's death shall be the death of the other some day. Gene whispered gravely. The patterns on the ground didn't seem familiar to him, but he looked at them as though he was looking at someone's tomb. Her death hasn't came yet, but it's nearing. Too soon, too quick, too deadly.

'But-'

An ear-splitting cry was heard, and Sandy never knew that his sister's end was right in the dark alleys of the Robo City.

(A/N I do have a weird feeling that I'm making Sandy appear more than Tara. But it should work out soon, I guess-)