Armageddon

Tia drummed her fingers against the bookshelf she leaned on, an irritated expression across her face. Her little brother sat in the chair next to her, his knees pulled up to his chin, while President Ramsay and the Second lady argued in the center of the study. Michael sat on the far end of the room by an open window. He seemed ready to escape with every move Tia made; his gaze avoided her the entire time.

“This is absurd!” The Second Lady spoke loudly, her face flushed and angry. “Some people show up from nowhere and we’re to just invite them into our home and offer up our daughter?! We don’t even know these people, what they’ve done, who they are! How are we supposed to trust them?” She stalked over to Tia and pointed at her fiercely, her burning gaze matching the Presidents. “How do you know they haven’t already done something to her?! What if she’s been tricked?!”

The President groaned, combing his thick fingers through this thinning hair. His golden eyes seemed burnt out. Tia quickly jumped to defend her honor. “I’m still me! They haven’t done anything to me, they just want to show you-.”

“Silence child, your father and I are talking.” The Second Lady growled, her voice nothing but venom. She slid her grey gaze over her as if she was looking at something disgusting and dirty. “You’re to be examined; we need to know you’re still a virgin for the ceremony.”

“Nadia!” Tia gasped, her face darkening. “I’m not your child! Don’t you dare treat me-” The Second Lady, Nadia, slapped her across the face. The impact stung but seemed weak compared to normal. Tia quickly shot her a look.

Michael cried out in fear, huddling further away. “No Milady, she’s not Human anymore. Don’t anger her, don’t make him come.” He clawed at his face, his gaze growing further and further away. President Ramsay regarded him before calmly waving to his wife.

“Step away from Tiana, my dear. Let’s be reasonable.” He gently took his wife’s hand and led her back into the middle of the room. He turned and let her take a good look at Michael. “Do you see this boy? He’s a mess. He’s to lead our people. We can’t continue with what we had planned, and we can’t host another tournament.”

She frowned, watching the blonde male shake, his fearful gaze darting back to Tia every few seconds. “It’s true, he can’t even be in the same room with her.” Nadia sighed and looked back at the younger female. “We don’t know anything about these people - what if it’s a truth we can’t face? You’ve heard the stories from Michael,” she looked up into her husband’s bold face. He rubbed her arms.

“This is for the best. We will send our children into the Dark Continent as planned, but now we can sleep soundly knowing we aren’t sending them to their death.”

“But honey, you saw his eyes. That man’s not Human.” Her uncertain gaze fell back on Tia, something even darker lingered there.

“Ah, so what?” Tia snapped. She launched herself off the bookshelf with enough force that it snapped under her weight. Michael screamed and jumped back. Both parents jerked away from her, watching her wildly. She shook her head, her hair dancing back and forth. “Do you realize we’ve been locked away in this little valley all these years for our safety?! Do you even realize how amazing it is that this opportunity has presented itself to us? Our civilization is dying, humanity is burning out. We’ve been the cause of our demise since the very beginning.

“Now we’re being given a second chance to reenter the world, a world we no longer know. There is so much life out there I cannot even begin to describe to you. Their species, the ‘Fae’, is brand new. They’ve only been around for a few thousand years. Do you want to evolve, to change? Do you want to take your first steps and officially become a part of this world? Or do you want to remain in this little corner - a corner that the whole world laughs at?”

She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at them with eyes as determined as they were wild. “I’m ready. I’m ready for the change. I welcome it. Do you want to see what we can become?” She took a hold of the chair her little brother had been sitting on quietly, giving him a big wink. He raised his chin, a little curious when she suddenly lifted the chair high above her head.

“My baby!” Nadia cried. Tia jumped onto the couch behind her, walking along the back of it with ease. The child looked over the arm of the chair, his eyes shining with amazement. Tia hopped off the couch and placed the chair down gently on the other side of a polished coffee table. She turned to face her stunned parents, a smile playing across her face.

“This, and much more, is possible. It’s at your fingertips. Let’s take this slow, and just start with dinner. No, they are not Human. They are Fae, and this is now a world of magic we live in. They’re trying to draw us out of our hole and welcome us back into it; are you doing to take their hand? Or live in fear of the unknown?”

President Ramsay regarded his daughter curiously, stroking his ginger and silver spotted beard. Thoughtfully he approached her, placing a hand on her head. She looked up at him with cautious eyes and was greeted with a genuine smile. “You look so much like your mother. Your mother was always best suited in a place where she could spread her wings... perhaps I have forgotten just whose daughter you really are.” A hot knot formed in her throat as she met the gaze of her father. “Let’s do that, let’s just start with dinner. Shall we?”

She nodded, unable to choke out any words.

Shortly after the intense conference with her family, Tia ambled through the halls she knew too well. Family portraits lined the corridors and fake plants decorated the tables and shelves. Each window was open the same width, and each curtain was pulled back the same way. Walking through the red-carpeted corridor, she couldn’t resist tugging a little on each curtain she passed. Still, one came loose and fell closed, and in the sudden cast of shadow, she thought she saw a familiar redhead out of the corner of her eye. When she turned, Kazimir was nowhere to be.

Something clicked by her head and she froze. Slowly, she shifted her gaze into the barrel of a gun. “D-don’t move…” Michael gritted, his handshaking. He took a step back, just out of her reach. “D-don’t make any noises, j-just… do as I say.”

Sitting in the room the President had provided for their stay, sulking over having been brought along, Diaval wanted to crawl within himself. Alex seemed to be looking at something out the window, and even he seemed bored with the current situation. Groaning loudly, Diaval rolled onto his side, then froze when he heard a curious noise. It was the sound of a gun, the sound of the safety being switched off. He sat up, listening intently. For a moment he thought he heard footsteps retreating, a timid pair belonging to a fierce redhead he had come to know.

“Alex,” he spoke up, his tone curious. The Humanoid Gargoyle turned to look at him. “Does Tia own a gun?”

Alex frowned. “You think I would know that answer?”

“No…I suppose not.” He laid back down, his curiosity diminishing.

“Why do you ask?”

“It’s probably nothing, I probably just imagined it. But I thought I heard a gun,”

Alex folded his arms, thinking. “This is the Human realm… there are guns everywhere. But what does any of that have to do with Tia?”

Diaval groaned, over the conversation. “I don’t know, why do you keep talking?”

Tia sat on a couch in an empty room, her hands lying flat on the cushions to either side. Her wide eyes locked onto the frightened male pacing before her. He wasn’t right in the head. He turned and pointed the gun at her, his eyes unrecognizable.

“I should kill you, you… you!” He seemed to be burning up inside, with sweat glistening across his sickly forehead. His blonde curls stuck to his skin. “You ruined everything, it’s all your fault. They don’t know, they don’t understand what’s out there. But I do, I do very well.” His expression changed for a minute, his gaze unfocused. Something about him, if only for a moment, looked dead.

Tiana opened her mouth to speak when Michael cocked the gun, giving her a look that instantly silenced her. He was ready. With his other hand, he grabbed his heart, a pained expression taking over. “Tiana, it hurts. It really hurts. I can feel it moving, it’s inside of me…”

Something wasn’t right, something other than what was already happening. She gently raised her hands, palms outstretched. “Michael, what’s inside of you?”

“I-I don’t know… No one listens to me…” He seemed sad. “I had a dream. A dream that a man did unspeakable things to me… ever since then.” His grip tightened on his shirt, his hand suddenly steady. “It’s been inside of me,”

“I know you’re scared, but I know people who can help. People who will listen to you. You have every right to be scared, but I’ve protected you from day one, haven’t I?”

His empty gaze went right through her, causing the blood in her body to turn to ice. His gaze belonged to a dead man. He opened his mouth and a soft, inhuman moan escaped his lungs. Black blood dripped off his bottom lip and any color that remained in his skin washed away. The gun dropped to the floor, but Tia remained frozen in horror, the memory of Kazimir coming back to haunt her.

The blackness rising in his mouth quickly latched onto his cheeks, long threads of oozing darkness stretching out inches from his face. Tia clapped her hands to her mouth, her body beginning to tremble. Michael reached toward his mouth, digging his fingers into his jaw and ripping them down across his throat as he arched his head backward. The skin ripped open as the darkness seemed to choke the life right out of him. His freshly opened wounds bled red momentarily, squirting blood in random directions, quickly turned black as more dark tentacles stretched out of his open throat.