A Hero In The Dark

Chapter 138: The Demon Inside

I don't run to him or say much at all; I hardly feel that I can.

I only freeze and wait, hoping that there isn't anything wrong and that he is who I want him to be.

"Johnny! The hell have you been?!" Nine shouts, grateful to see him but annoyed all the same.

"Oh, John Smith?" says John in a tone that is slightly off apart from his own. "I've got him in a real cozy place," he says, and at that, it comes back to me.

I have read those words long ago. In the tales that Pittacus Lore foretold, when John's body and mind were taken control of by a kid with legacies. A kid working with the Foundation. A kid capable of transferring his consciousness to any other he touches.

Lucas. Lucas Sanders.

"An old and cold dusty bedroom he likes to imagine sometimes," John continues and points to me. "Watching her rest in a deep coma; wondering if she will live or die. If you keep trying, he might be able to hear you."

I step forward.

I step out from under Nine and Five's arms and toward John, the love that I admire so dearly.

The love that I dread to lose.

I take a deep breath, try to summon my Eneration and fail, and speak regardless.

"Lucas," I start, only assuming that is his name. "Please, give John back to us."

John smiles; a sly devilish smirk that I am not at all used to seeing on his face.

"Aha. I had a hunch that you might know me. The people classified under MogPro informed me of your ties to a deceased member of an alien race," John says. "In Switzerland – you remember it don't you? I was instructed to end the life of Einar while I had a desire to end the lives of all shames to humanity. And I almost succeeded too, if it were not for the Professor of your stupid little academy." John seems to scoff and I grit my teeth watching him – watching this demon – control the boy I love. "Oh well. I settled for an even better proposition in those mountains."

I say nothing. Say nothing and wait.

"What proposition?" I hear Nine ask behind me though I do not turn around, glaring almost fearfully at the love of my life and hoping he is not lost.

John's grin intensifies and I get an odd sense of fear that I have not felt since the day I was kidnapped and operated on by Drac. His grin intensifies and his feet rise off the metal floor.

His Lumen flickers in the faint light and then his body flickers out entirely.

John is gone. The thing controlling him is gone.

Gone or...

And then behind me, Nine curses in a shout.

I spin and face him, ultimately getting dizzy as I do. And there, John holds Nine in a headlock and I can see the bold Loric struggling to fight himself free.

"A proposition of getting access to only the strongest of them all," John, or the demon inside him, says daringly.

Five flares and tightens his fists and tenses his body. As he does when he uses his Externa. Although in this case, it doesn't seem like it is working. His skin remains as that and only that.

Skin.

"Let him go!" Five shouts once his confusion dissipates.

John does not. In fact, his grip seems to only tighten. Five takes a step toward them both but I stop him and grab his wrist.

"Five, don't," I say first. "If you touch him, he might take control of you too."

And so, Five stops; looks upon Nine and John with a confusion and anger I haven't seen in a long time.

I turn to John again; to Lucas.

I have no idea how to stop someone without touching them nor do I know how to stop one at all without my legacies. Being in the situation I am in, it feels a struggle to even stand for so long without support. But I need to get John back.

I need to.

I don't know what I am going to do if I don't.

Tears begin to flow from the corners of my eyes down my cheeks and with a shaky voice, I plead, "Lucas please. Let John and Nine free. Don't hurt them."

John chuckles dryly before replying, "I never thought of you mutants to be beggars. An interesting fate you've chosen for yourselves."

I hardly have enough time to figure what he means when a sharp and cold icicle forms in John's palm.

He throws it at Five and, without his flight, Five can barely jump out of the way.

It grazes him at his midsection and he grunts his pain. I don't know how deep he is hurt, but considering he has fallen to his knees, it must be deep enough.

"Five!" I shout, and at that moment, John strikes.

After pushing Nine aside into the nearest steel wall, headfirst so that Nine is motionless on the floor, John flies straight into me. At a speed too fast I cannot react in time.

The breath goes out of my lungs as John pins me to the wall, opposite to where Nine lies and beside the wounded Five. He holds his Loric dagger to my throat; the very same dagger from my last nightmare.

The very same dagger that he killed me with.

"I watched you on the news," John's demon spits in my face while I struggle to breathe. "I waited for an opportunity like this. I waited patiently for the day that God would allow me to rid the evil inside of you. Any last words?"

"Yeah," I spit despite the difficulty. "As a matter of fact, I do."

John waits. The Demon waits.

"Reverend Jimbo, your Father, would be devastated at your work. God disowns you and He thinks you're a piece of shit Lucas," I say, my voice all snarky.

It isn't hard to say such at the face I love. For I know that is not him.

The real John would never do this. The real John would never say everything the demon has said. The real John would never hurt me.

"Bitch!" shouts the demon. "Take that back!"

The real John loves me.

I know he is still in there.

Perhaps listening. Perhaps watching.

And so, I look deep into John's dark blue eyes. Look deep and speak with the cold blade against my throat, "John, if you're in there, you need to fight. Fight whatever has control of you. Please. I need you John. I need you and I won't lose you."

Then there is a roar and the dagger pulls free.

There is a roar and John is swiped away. Back several feet down the hallway from which we came.

I slump to the floor and rub my throat. And there, standing her ground in front of me, Five, and Nine, is Pixie.

Pixie in her Komodo Dragon form. Ready to defend us against a threat we never expected.

"Pixie," I say softly, relieved that she is here but almost worried at the same time. She turns her head just enough so I can look into her green faded eyes and see; she is just as worried as I am. And I instruct to her, "Don't hurt him. Don't hurt John."

And just as I say so, do I feel that same excruciating pain at my temples and skull from before. Tearing my mind apart and driving it to insanity.

I scream.

I scream louder and longer than ever, and it certainly doesn't help to relieve such pain. Yet that is all I can do.

Scream.

Scream until I can't no more. Scream until I drop.

The last I see, is Nine and Five slowly making their way to their feet and Pixie charging John, the demon inside.

And drop, I do.