Touch of Darkness

Chapter 27: Flashback

The world was cast in shadows and darkness. A man levitated himself into the air, bolts of lightning flashing around him at his command, deterring anyone that dared to approach him. Anyone that had felt brave enough to try and stop him was already lying on the ground, their shriveled bodies stripped of their magic. A wicked grin was plastered on his face as he drew up a wave of his shadow minions and sent them to collect more souls. He needed more - more abilities, more magic, more power. He wouldn't stop until he was the only one with magic. And then, the world would be his to command.

When I came to, a flash of lightning struck the area in front of me. I flinched and prepared myself for the pain, but realized that it seemed to pass right through me. The man was floating right about me now, but he paid no attention to me. I looked around and took in the scene before me. Buildings were crumbled, and cars and trees were strewn about. On the side of one wall that refused to break there was blood - a lot of blood. But what made my stomach turn even more were the dozens of bodies that were scattered around me. They all lay motionless, and when I examined one more closely, I saw that their eyes were still open. They looked so blank and empty.

Where am I? However much I looked around, I couldn't answer the question. There was too much ruin and chaos to be able to recognize anything. What I did register was that I couldn't touch anything, and no one could see me. I was invisible, like a ghost. The only thing I could do was to observe the horrors that man was committing. Something about him was eerily familiar, but I know I've never met him before. His hair was a deep black and I could see a purple glow coming from his eyes as a black mist surrounded him. I don't think I'd ever forget meeting someone who looked so vile. Just looking at him now sent a shiver down my spine.

Then in the distance, I heard shouting. All of a sudden a semi-truck came flying at the man. He nimbly dodged it and disintegrated the truck with a simple touch, and then headed in the direction it came from. Following him, we came to another man, one who I did recognize. It was Cain's dad. He was panting heavily and had another truck held up over his head. He has the same super strength that Cain has. Behind him was a group of people. Except for two of them, I recognized the rest as my friends' parents, and most importantly, I saw my mom. She looked younger, they all did. That's when I finally realized that what I was currently witnessing was the past. Our parents all had magic, just like us, and they were fighting whoever this evil man was. My mom stepped up to the front of the group. I saw Elijah's mom shouting for her to not get closer, but when my mom refused, she cast a barrier to shield my mom in case that man attacked.

"Lukas!" my mom shouted, "Stop this! I don't want to fight you!"

The man, Lukas, just laughed and then glowered. "Pathetic, all of you. To think any of you even stand a chance at defeating me. Soon you'll all join the rest of the weaklings in becoming fodder for my powers." In an instant, without even lifting a finger, he shot several energy orbs at my mom and the others. Elijah's mom expanded her barrier while my mom and Chris's dad deflected the orbs with their own. They just barely managed to withstand his attack.

My mom held another orb in her hand at the ready, "What happened to you Lukas? Why did you become like this? You weren't this heartless before." I could hear the pain in my mom's voice that she tried to hold back, and it hurt my heart to see her like this.

"Oh, my dear Alanna. I did like how naive you were," he smirked, "it made it so easy to manipulate you. I should thank you for that, actually. Without you, none of this would be possible."

Cain's dad was about to charge at him in lion form, but Alice's dad held him back. There were no openings around Lukas. If they weren't careful, they'd get themselves killed.

"You're lying," my mom said with seething anger, "You can't say that all of our relationship was fake to you. All that time we spent together, when you said you loved me, when you said you wanted us to spend the rest of our lives together. Are you really going to say you felt nothing all that time?" And then she added, her voice escalating in a yell breaking with grief and anger, "What about the child we had together?! Was she just another part of your scheme too?!"