The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide

“Stop it!” I screamed. “Let go of her!” I thrashed against my restraints, all traces of calm vanished.

Then she removed her hands and Alia stopped screaming.

“Alia!” I yelled at her, “Alia, are you okay?!”

No response. Alia stared straight ahead, her eyes glazed over, unseeing.

“What did you do to her?” I choked out, my voice rough.

She didn’t answer me.

Suddenly Alia crumpled in her chair beside me, whimpering.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” A sob wrenched out of her, tears streaming down her face. “I should have saved you I’m so sorry.”

I screamed her name, over and over. Nothing.

“What are you doing to her?!” I yelled at the blonde.

Her gaze broke from Alia and turned towards me. Her eyes bright and burning, maniacal. “Nothing that she hasn’t already felt for herself.”

She laughed, low and creepily. “My power allows me access to your brain, more specifically her brain at the moment.” She walked back in front of my sister. “I can feel everything that she feels, all of her fears, insecurities, worries, regrets, hatred, all of it. I take it and twist it.” She laughed again. “I can make her see whatever I want and I use those feelings, play with them, to get insider and break her. It’s quite fun actually.”

My stomach heaved and my body lurched forward with a spasm. “You’re a monster,” I ground out.

“I only enhance what’s already there,” she said. “For instance, did you know that your dear sister here carries a significant amount of guilt about your parents’ deaths? She feels she should’ve been there to help them, but hadn’t been able to get there fast enough”

I shook my head, trying to tune her words out.

“Oh yes, she not only blames herself but that’s why she joined the academy in the first place.” She made several tsk sounds. “It’s burning in her mind, a flaming white hot ball of anger, self-loathing, and a need for redemption. She joined the academy to make sure she never fails her loved ones again. She’s never told a soul. Not even you. Her very own brother, her beloved twin.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to be anywhere but here, listening to her telling me everything about Alia that she would never tell me herself.

“Doesn’t it hurt Alec?” Her footsteps made their way to stand in front of me. I squeezed my eyes tighter. “Although,” she said, “I do suppose that you deserve it. After all, where were you when she needed you? Where were you when our dear little Alia spent years blaming herself for something that was out of her control? When she almost went mad from the guilt? Where were you Alec? She needed you and you left her.”

“NO!” The word ripped out of me, savage and raw. I didn’t want to believe any of it, I couldn’t. This wasn’t true. This was a lie. She was lying.

My eyes snapped open to gaze into hers.

“You’re lying.” My voice was thick, holding back all the emotions that were threatening to spill out.

“Am not.” She simply stated. “Want to know something else? Want to know what your sister really fears?”

“Leave her alone!” I jerked against the chair and yelled.

“Let’s go ahead and find out.” The monster walked back in front of Alia and looked into her eyes that were currently slicked over, devoid of all emotion.

Alia started jerking around in her seat, hands twitching as she tried to move them. Her breathing was rapid, a sheen of sweat appeared over her skin. Like she was in the middle of a battle.

“Megan, go over and help Sabin!” Her voice was commanding, in control. “They’re over the other side of this hill, if we can get around behind them we have them. You have to go and help-” Her voice was cut short as her back slammed into the seat and a yell left her, like she’d been hit by something. She jerked back forward, straining against the chair.

“No, dammit! Megan, Sabin, it’s Tyrone! You have to go!” Her breathing was rapid, her voice anxious. She slammed back against the chair again. “Just hang on!” she yelled. “I’m coming!” Her voice was angry now. “Tyrone! TYRONE!” She was practically spitting. “Leave them alone!” Her voice cracked as she screamed, “NO! Look over here! Stop it!” Then she jerked her arms so violently that the left restraint holding her wrist flew off. Her hand flew forward and the blonde slammed violently against the back wall. Alia twisted her hand and the blonde was flying through the air, slamming again into the wall beside me. I heard a sickening crunch as she slammed into the wall. “Sabin, move!”

Alia was still under, still living out this nightmare, despite the fact that the blonde was on the floor beside me screaming and cursing.

“Megan, Sabin, move! He’s going to-” Her whole body slammed backwards with such force that her chair fell backwards. “NO!” she screamed her voice cracking, my heart breaking. “No.” Her voice softer, tears dripping down her cheeks.

The blonde was on her feet now, right arm hanging by her side at an odd angle, bone sticking out at the elbow. She was still cursing as she made her way back towards Alia. Her hair was falling, breathing ragged, and looking thoroughly pissed off, but still with the insane gleam in her eyes.

“Tyrone!” she spat the name, and winced. “Get in here!”

The door slammed open and Tyrone strode in. “What?” His deep voice carried a bored tone as he crossed his arms.

“Get her upright and restrain that arm, I’m not finished with her.”

He looked at her arm, saw the bone protruding and the blood dripping from her fingertips onto the floor.

“Yeah, and what about that?” She looked at it, then quickly looked away.

“I’ll get it fixed in a minute, I need to finish with her.”

Tyrone came behind Alia and lifted the seat roughly up. He then grabbed her left arm and slammed it down onto the chair and wound a thick leather strap around her forearm.

“That’ll be all,” she said, voice clipped. “We’re not quite finished here.”

As she stood in front of Alia and held her arm to her side, a sneer made its way onto her face. Alia started thrashing in her seat.

“Alec, RUN!” Alia screamed hoarsely. I felt as if a railroad spike had been slammed through my heart at the mention of my name. “GO! You have to go right now! I’ll hold them off!” Her voice was panicked. “No, No, ALEC LOOKOUT!”

Alia jerked hard to the right, almost tipping her seat over again before suddenly becoming still.

“Alec,” she whispered, her voice coming out fragile and broken. A gasping sob ripped out of her, “Alec, NO. Wake up! Alec! Please!” Another sob wracked her body. “Please.” Her voice cracked, thick with tears. “Please, you can’t leave me.”

I blinked, trying to clear my eyes. Hot tears were burning down my cheeks unbidden. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but it was killing me to see her like this.

I’m so sorry, Alia. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

I looked over at my sister. Sobbing, sweat soaked, body shaking as she cried.

“Stop,” I said, my voice cracking, pleading. “Please, just leave her alone.”

“Finally seen enough?” The blonde smirked down at me.

“Just stop.” I suddenly felt the railroad spike start to burn hot with rage. She couldn’t keep doing this to Alia. Channeling that anger into my voice, I said: “Stop doing this to her!”

“Fine.” She shrugged her shoulders and turned to walk out of the room. As she reached the door, Alia slumped forward, unconscious, tears still trailing down her cheeks.

“You’re next,” she said, those familiar dark blue eyes flashing menacingly, and walked out of the room, door slamming shut behind her.

I looked over at Alia, her eyes were still closed, and her body limp.

“Alia,” I said urgently, “Alia I need you to wake up!” She stirred a little. “Alia!” I yelled her name and she jerked upright, a loud gasp coming from her as she woke up.

“What-” she looked around bewildered, then her eyes met mine and something inside me broke. Her eyes, still wet with tears, had the look of absolute heartbreak. They were broken, the life drained out of them. Then they widened in alarm.

“Alec? You-You’re dead.” The tears were back, her voice broken. “Everyone is dead. I couldn’t save them.” Her face morphed into one of murder. “You died! You-You just stopped, you stopped fighting! And I-” her voice broke, “I couldn’t save you and everyone else. I was weak!”

I searched for something to say, anything. My mouth opened and closed.

“I wished for death,” her voice was quiet, choked, and far away. “When I saw you laying there I wanted to die too.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “But at the same time, I knew I didn’t deserve it.” She turned her head to look at me, her face set with a firm resolution. “I deserved to live with the guilt and pain. It was my reward,” bitterness had edged into her voice, “My pat on the back for what a great job I’d done.” Her eyes met mine with a flash of remorse.

“I failed you, Alec. I deserve every miserable second of life that I have left.”

“Alia,” I choked out. “You’re not, I’m not-” I struggled to find the words. She believed all of it had been real. I had to convince her otherwise.

“Alia listen to me,” I could feel the urgency edging into my voice. “You do not deserve this. I am not dead.”

A look of confusion and anger crossed her face and she opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off.

“Listen to me, I need you to trust me, ok? It’s very important.” She nodded, the pain still present in her eyes. “None of what you think just happened is real. I am not dead. We are in a konna facility, we’ve been captured.”

Her expression changed to one of bewilderment. “Wha…”

“I need you to trust me and do exactly what I tell you, ok?” Another nod. “There is a girl here who can get into your head and put images and experiences into your mind that are not real.” I leaned as close to Alia as I could, boring my eyes into hers, trying to make her understand. “Alia, I need you to remember. Remember why we’re here.”

She shook her head, “I’m trying, I… there’s nothing there. We were fighting and everyone...” Pain flashed across her face. “Everyone died. That wasn’t real?”

“No,” I exhaled hard, we were getting somewhere. “Try Alia, please try and remember. We are on a mission with Sabin and Megan, you were on watch and I came with you to investigate an energy surge we felt near camp. We fought with some of the konna and got captured.”

“Megan…” Alia questioned, “Megan O’Carroll? I remember her.”

“Yes Alia, Megan O’Carroll, we grew up with her.” Relief seeped through my body, she was remembering.

“There is a woman who will be back soon and she’s going to do the same thing to me that she just did to you. When she does I need you to sit there and be quiet. It’s going to look like she’s hurting me, and I might say some things that don’t make sense, but I need you to just not do anything, ok?”

“Okay, Alec,” she said quickly, her tone reluctant. “I trust you.”

A wry twisted smile made its way onto my face. She wouldn’t be saying that if she could remember everything else that had gone on today.

The door slammed back open and the blonde made her way in. Her arm was in a cast and bound tightly to her side. Her hair was fixed and she looked a lot less rumpled than when she left. She was back in control.

Her boots clicked against the floor as she walked to my chair. She leaned down and put her mouth close to my ear, her fingers trailing down my cheek.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” Her breath was hot and harsh. She placed her good hand against the side of my face and leaned her forehead against mine.

“Alec, what is she doing?” I faintly hear Alia ask.

I gritted my teeth, I was not going to give her the satisfaction of screaming.

“Stop it!” I hear Alia yell. “Stop you’re hurting him!”

My brain was melting. It was like a white hot knife was cleaving it in half, melting it as it pushed deep into my brain. Everything was black, I could feel myself sweating, fighting against the pain. It was building, getting hotter. I couldn’t fight it. I felt a yell rip from my body and then nothing.

I opened my eyes slowly to see... where was I?

“I can’t believe you!” I gasped as the wind rushed out of me. “You disappear for months and then come back and just expect me to be fine with it?”

Everything came into focus. I was in a house, Megan was standing in front of me, hands planted on her hips and fire in her eyes. She looked older somehow. Her hair was shorter than I ever remember it being, barely reaching the length of her chin. Her face was harder too, and her eyes didn’t carry the childlike light that had always been there, even when she was angry. Which she definitely was now.

“Wh… what?” I stuttered, not knowing what was going on, except that Megan was pissed and I’d done something wrong.

“What do you mean ‘what’?!” she exploded, her hands flying into the air before one pointed at me. “You are a good-for-nothing, useless, selfish, jerk, Alec! That’s what!”

“Megan,” I pleaded, needing to make the situation better, “I’m so sorry, I don’t-”

“You know what? I can’t be around you anymore!” Megan said as stomped towards the door, grabbing a jacket and a suitcase sitting next to it.

I grabbed her arm. I had to stop her from leaving. “Megan please! Just...”

“Get your hands off me!” Her eyes were wild, scared. Scared of me. “I never want to see you again!” She whirled around and slammed the door, leaving me.

I reached for the door, hands shaking, “Megan, I… I’m sorry.”

Everything went black.

“This has got to stop man.” A deep voice echoed into my consciousness. “You’re getting out of control!”

Sabin stood before me, finger pointing in accusation a smashed bottle lying on the kitchen floor. He looked older too. His face looked like it hadn’t been shaved in a few days, and his longer than usual hair was pulled into a bun at the back of his head. But where Megan had looked pissed enough to shoot me, Sabin just looked… exhausted.

“Every night you go out,” he was saying, his voice a deadly sort of calm. “And every night I get called out to clean up your messes! I’m sick and tired of it!”

My eyes were wide, apologetic, “I’m sorry! I’ve been trying to do better, please...”

The words were spilling out of me, even though I wasn’t sure of what I meant by them.

“Do you even know what you did last night?” His eyes were shooting daggers at me. I stared blankly back. “No! Of course you don’t!” Sabin paced around in front of me, fuming. “You got so drunk that you set the bar on fire! They had to evacuate everyone in the bar and the surrounding blocks until you finally passed out!”

“The building burned to the ground, there are five people in the hospital with burn injuries! We’re lucky no one was killed. Do you know what kind of strings I had to pull to keep them from locking you up or putting you in an institution!?”

My face burned and my head pounded with shame for something I couldn’t even remember doing.

“Listen Alec,” Sabin came to a stop in front of me, his voice softening just the slightest. “I’ve tried to help you and I’ve done everything in my power to get you out of this,” he motioned to the bottle and to me, “whatever you’re in.”

He took a breath to compose himself.

“Look, I know your life has been hell since Megan walked out on you and even before that with Alia…” Pain flashed across his face. He stopped, not able to continue that sentence.

Alia? I thought. What had happened to her? I wanted to ask, but Sabin continued to talk before I could.

“I can’t do it anymore, man.”

Sabin reached out and dropped a set of keys into my hand. “I’m going to find my own place, and you need to figure out what the hell you’re doing with your life. You’re on your own from here on out.” He walked out of the kitchen and I heard a door slam. He was gone.

Black engulfed me.

I heard explosions all around me, felt the impacts in my chest. Light came to me in violent sunbursts of orange and yellow.

I jerked my head up. I was lying in the dirt. I sucked in a breath and immediately choked on the dust in the air. All around me was fighting. Swords clanking together, sounds of collisions, people using their powers. It was chaos. It was battle.

I stood up quickly as a pair of fighters approached me yelling.

“Alec! Alia needs you over on the eastern flank! She’s holding off two konna platoons but she needs help!” They sprinted away towards a group of fighters in the north. I took off, flying across the broken ground. Hurtling the fallen, pushing aside those who tried to land a blow as I passed by them.

The oxygen burned in my lungs, my body was fire. As I got closer I could hear the fighting and feel the tremors in the ground from Alia’s power. As I topped the hill I could see where Alia was fighting. She was the eye, the fixed point in a dark crackling storm of countless Konna soldiers. They were falling on top of each other, failing to keep their balance on the shifting ground. A small part of me, for a brief second, was captured in awe at the raw force of nature Alia was. Something she’d told me was mirrored in my own fighting. The thoughts melted away and were swiftly replaced by the quickly rising battle fever in my system. I faltered a step when a blast wave of dark energy tore through the field in front of me, and watched in shock as Tyrone stepped out from the tree line, sprinting towards my sister, dark energy sparking and roiling over his arms and hands. Alia never saw him coming.

“No, NO!” I screamed, still too far away. Too far.

“ALIA!” I shouted as loud as I could, desperate to get her attention as I pushed my legs the fastest they’d ever gone. I threw my hands out and a solid wave of wind with them, but I wasn’t in range.

No, no, no.

My breath was ragged and my chest heaving.

Please, please, please. Not her. Please.

Tyrone saw me coming and his eyes narrowed and with deadly precision threw out a beam of dark energy at me. As I rolled to the side and sprang back up, a shout on my lips. I watched as he sent a blast directly at Alia who was still holding off what was left of the konna group that had her encircled.

With a deep primal yell, Tyrone thrust both hands in front of him and unleashed a blast that rendered the whole field black for a split second, and then with an ear shattering boom collapsed down into a spear of black that hit Alia straight in the chest.

My feet carried me forward again, working against the numbness seeping through my chest.

Alia was knocked backwards, tumbling and limp over the ground. The other konna soldiers were rushing to Tyrone, who had fallen on a knee and didn’t appear to be moving.

The numbness spread further, grazing my fingertips and freezing my mind.

A few moments later I skidded to a stop and fell to my knees beside Alia. She was lying on her side, facing away from me. I gently grabbed her shoulder to roll her onto her back, and froze when I saw her face. She was almost unrecognizable. Her usually tan skin was ghostly pale. No hint of color was on her pale cheeks. Dark circles lay under her closed eyes. I quickly dropped my ear to her chest, straining to hear a heart beat, to hear anything.

Come on, come on. Please Alia.

I moved my fingers to her neck, and as I felt the resounding absence of movement the numbness burned away and in its wake left a deep agonizing burn in my chest.

“Als,” I whispered. Still she lay there, unmoving. As I bent over and pressed my forehead to hers the words poured out, unchecked and desperate. “Don’t leave me. Please, please!” A broken sob ripped out of my chest, “Don’t go! Please!”

I rocked back on my heels and screamed at the sky, hot tears burning down my face and dripping off my thighs.

“Please.” My voice cracked. “Don’t leave me, Alia.”

I dropped my chin to my chest as my eyes slid shut. The desperate burning in my chest evaporated, and was replaced with a different cold that burned deeper and harsher, sucking the life out of my bones. It seeped out from my heart and into the deepest corners of my being. My body shuddered with a sob, and I gave in to the feelings threatening to engulf me. My sister was dead and I couldn’t save her.

Alia was dead.

I was alone.

The black returned, and stayed this time. I was tired, so tired. Tired and ashamed. I was a horrible person, I’d done unspeakable things that had left me alone in the world. Everyone I cared about pushed away by my own stupid actions.

Stupid, Alec. You’re an idiot. An idiot who is all alone in the world. I wanted to curl up and die. I couldn’t bear what I’d done, what I’d become. I couldn’t bear to be by myself. I succumbed to the blackness. Let my mind go blank, let it engulf me as I numbed myself to the thoughts, emotions, the pain.

I don’t know how long I stayed there, in the black abyss. Minutes, days, years. But something jolted me out of it. Someone was yelling. I crumpled inside. No again, please no more, I can’t bear anymore. I have no one left to lose.

Someone was yelling my name, I could hear it, and someone was yelling that they wanted me to wake up, yelling my name repeatedly. I felt like I was underwater, all the sounds coming through were muffled and quiet.

“Alec!” I heard the voice say, a little louder.

“Alec, listen to me!” louder again.

“Alec Lachlan Parker wake up right now!” My eyes snapped open, the voice commanding me to consciousness.

The voice yelling at me was to my right, but the face I saw when my eyes snapped open was one that I recognized. She had short blonde hair, and a muscular build, and a scar running across her left temple. Why was she here? I hadn’t seen her since we were kids. The look in her eyes caused my gut to twist, something was wrong, she wasn’t right. I looked beside me to see Alia, restrained in a metal chair. Burns running across her stomach and wrists, a black eye, cuts everywhere. Something was wrong. I looked down and saw that I was in a chair just like hers. What was going on?

“Alec it’s not real! It’s not real!” She yelled at me urgently.

“Gag her,” the woman in front of me said.

A man walked in, he had a powerful build and protruding muscles rippling under his dark skin.

“No!” Alia screamed at him.

Why was she here? How was she here? I had just seen her die. What was happening?

“Alec it’s not real, we’ve been...” the man’s hand cracked across Alia’s face, her lips busted and blood flowed down her chin.

Shock made its way across my face. Why’d he hit her?

“We’ve been capture by the konna, it’s not real! Snap out of-hrmph-” she was cut off as the man wedged a nasty looking towel between her teeth and secured it behind her head.

It’s not real?

What did she mean?

I looked back into the eyes of the woman sitting in front of me, they were a dark blue, cold and menacing, gazing into mine with an intensity that made me want to flinch. I squinted my eyes and looked closer, I did know her, and something inside of me that was screaming wrong when I looked at her. My head felt like it was filled with static fuzz, like something was missing. Then it hit me.

Who she was. Her name.

Brittany O’Carroll.

The blonde.

My head cleared and I remembered.

This was Megan’s sister, who I hadn’t seen in seven years.

She was a leader of the konna.

She wasn’t letting us out of here alive.

We’re going to die.