Chapter Thirty Seven-Goodbye, Cruel World

 
Chapter Thirty-Seven- Goodbye, Cruel World
It had been a week since Damien and his minions had taken me away to the place where the sacrifice ritual would be held, and everything about how they found me in Florida had been explained. Annalyn, Katherine's "friend", had been secretly working for Damien-just as I'd suspected. Then, He'd compelled some random Floridian to watch me, and then he found me in Disney World. It was as simple as that, he'd said.

I'd hated myself for being so foolish.

I began to think that I should have just stayed home and formed an army, like I originally was supposed to. I'd had a dream, just after Alec had came to me in the park that one morning, where i'd tricked grade seven and eight students from my school into attending a winter break camp and trained them to fight with me against Damien. Sadly, at the moment, that sounded like it might have worked a lot better.

Also, I hated  myself for the kind of hell that I was probably putting Alec through. I'd heard from Ana (who'd been spying on Alec for the past three days) that Alec and my friends had made it back safely to Carleton Place. She said that Alec was moping around-something i'd expected-and people were still looking for me. They'd tracked me down to New York, from what i'd heard, and haven't had a lead since then. Lukas told me that Katherine was probably going to lead the authorities away from where we were- but I was unsure of whether this action was being done in order to save the police officers or get me killed.
 Regardless, people were going to end up dead.

I'd used my only magical item that I had (the "magical-seeing-places-dust") to check up on my mom, who was surprisingly happy. I'd guessed either she really didn't care about me, or Dave had compelled her to be happy. I decided to go with the last one because it didn't make me feel like my own mother hated me.

I awoke in my tent at the crack of dawn when Lukas sprayed me in the face with a water gun filled with vervain water, causing my face to twist in excruciating pain.

"Rise and shine, Doppelicious. Today's your big day!" Was it the summer solstice already? I'd lost track of the days. Over the course of the last week i'd been kicked, hit, slapped, burned, stabbed, and verbally abused numerous times, and at this point, I was glad to be getting sacrificed. Damien and I had parted ways the day after he took me, and had left me with Ana, Lukas and Antoine, who insisted on torturing me in every way possible. Ana was the cruelest of them all. I knew the reason why-Antoine had explained to me how Ana and Alec had been close friends, and since Alec had betrayed them all because of me, it was my fault that he hated her now. So naturally, she hated me with a passion.

 I reached over and grabbed the hairbrush Ana had provided me with-apparently, Damien wanted me to look presentable. I winced in pain as I ran the brush through my hair. It was filled with vervain, as was everything else they were providing me with. I was starting to build up an immunity to it, which was good, but also pointless, considering today was the day I would die.

 "Hurry up, we need to be at the top of the hill in an hour!" Ana called impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" I groaned. 

"Don't you dare speak to us in that tone ever again!" Lukas snapped, spraying my face with the water gun once more. I fell to the ground, clutching my face in my hands.

"I'm sorry." I cried.

"You better be! Now don't let it happen again." I nodded quickly. As much as I tried to remember that it would all be over soon, I couldn't help but fear Damien and his minions. One wrong word, one wrong move, and they would give me some form of cruel and unusual punishment.

When we were about halfway up the hill, we stopped for a break, where I was allowed to briefly hunt animals such as deer, squirrels, etcetera, and I suddenly noticed that I had a cut on my arm. But it wasn't like any normal cut-it was growing, as if an invisble stick was slicing into my arm. Then, when words started to form, I realized that this could only mean one thing.

Katherine.

The words on my arm became clearer and clearer, until finally, there was a sentence.

Go along with the sacrifice as Damien wants you to. Help is coming.

I would have written back to Katherine, except just as the cuts began to heal, Ana found me and started dragging me up the hill again.

The entire way up the hill, all I could think about was how Katherine could possibly be coming for us. For starters, we were in the middle of nowhere; at a remote location that even I didn't know. Second of all, Damien had tons of minions on his side, even though he probably didn't need them. Ana could probably rip someone to shreds and do her nails at the same time.

At the top of the hill, Damien had everything for the sacrifice in place. There were three rings of fire put together in a sort of triangular shape. And there, in two of the three rings, stood Jade and Anna. Jade flashed me a worried look as the flames went down in the unoccupied ring and I was quickly escorted in by Lukas.

"I'm sorry, you guys." I said, quietly.

"It's not your fault." Jade said."Better I die than my family."

"What happened to Drake?" I asked, remembering that he'd also been kidnapped by a minion.

"He's at home. Damien decided to trade him for me, because...well, i'm not exactly sure why."

"Because I like the poetry of three innocent, beautiful young women being sacrificed for my benefit." Damien said, grinning evilly and looking up at the sun.

"Well," Damien smiled "The sun's almost at it's highest. We shall begin." The flames of the ring of fire surrounding me shot up, short enough that I could see what was going on, but tall enough that I couldn't run out without getting burned.

"My stone, Ana?" Damien held out his hand as Ana came towards Damien, carrying the lapis lazuli stone that she had obviously stolen from my backpack. I watched as one of his minions came forward, took the stone in her hands, and started muttering something in latin. The stone began rising up into the air, and then, when it was about ten feet above me, it exploded, shattering into a million pieces.

"Step one is complete, sir." she said, opening her eyes. Damien smiled.

"Excellent. Now onto the witch." Anna's ring of fire died down.

"Oh god, please no, please, i'll do anything, i'll-" But before Anna could propose a deal, Damien took a wooden stake and plunged it into her heart. A tear trickled down my face as my sister's limp corpse fell to the ground. I turned to Jade, realizing she was next.

"Jade, when that fire goes down I want you to run." I said.

"Kieyra, I can't-"

"You have to. You have to at least try. Please." She nodded. As soon as Jade's ring of fire died down, she ran for her life. Unfortunately, she didn't get very far.

"Trying to run, now are we?" Damien smirked, grabbing Jade by the neck.

"Screw...You..." Jade muttered, struggling to break free.

"Not so fast, love." He dropped her on the ground, and as she tried to get back up, he pinned her to the ground.

"I'm sorry, but It's lights out for you now, sweetie." I squeezed my eyes shut as I heard the painful snap of Damien snapping Jade's neck. I was close to breaking down and bawling my eyes out when, suddenly, there was more writing appearing on my arm.

Fly away.

At first I was confused as to what Katherine wanted me to do, but then it hit me. I could transform into a bird and fly out of the ring of fire without getting burned. I'd practiced lots since Alec had taught me, and I was now able to pretty much transform on demand. Without even thinking about it, I immediately transformed and flew out of the fire and into the woods as fast as my little, white-dove wings could take me. The moment I saw Alec and Katherine standing in the middle of a small clearing, I dove down and turned back into my human form, scaring both of them.

"Kieyra...?" Alec gave me a confused look. I turned to Katherine.

"...You didn't tell him?" I asked. Katherine turned to Alec and smiled.
"Surprise!"

And then, in a split second, Alec was next to me, hugging me, and everything was alright. Except...it wasn't. Anna was dead. Jade was dead. I was next.

It took me a few seconds to realize I had started bawling my eyes out.

"Hey, hey, are you okay? What's wrong? Did they hurt you?"

"No, everything, and numerous times, but that's besides the point."

"Everything? Tell me now."

"Jade's dead. Anna's dead. I'm next, and i'm scared, so so scared. More scared then i've ever been in my entire life. Oh, please, please, please tell me you two have a plan!"

"Well, I thought we did, but since you weren't part of it...i'm not sure anymore." He turned to Katherine, as if to ask her what her plan was.

"Well, I was going to-"

"Enlighten me, my lovely, what were you going to do?"

The three of us froze at the sound of Damien's voice.

"Okay, time for plan B." Katherine said, wide-eyed.

"Which would be...what?" I asked shakily.

"RUN LIKE HELL!" At that moment, the three of us ran for the hills-literally. We were getting close to the top of the hill when suddenly, I fell to the ground, feeling a pain that felt like one thousand needles piercing my heart. My arms were immediately pinned to my sides by an unknown force, and I couldn't seem to be able to move.

"Alec..." I whispered weakly. He rushed over and kneeled over me.

"What's going on!?"

"Alec...it hurts..."

"What hurts? What's happening?"

"That, my dear, is the pain of injecting vervain straight into the heart." Damien appeared about three metres away from us, carrying a limp and lifeless Katherine. She hardly moved as he set her down on the ground and sat on top of her legs, leaning over her chest.

"What did you do to her!?" Alec snarled, glaring at his former master.

"Did I not just explain myself?" Damien asked, annoyed.

"I didn't ask for your god damn sarcasm!"  This was probably the only time i'd ever really seen Alec get this mad at anyone.
"Don't...Please..." I muttered. "No more yelling...Let me go with him. Run..."  I was officially giving up. If Damien wanted me dead, I would be dead. It was as simple as that. Any hope i'd had when Katherine and Alec showed up was completely gone.

"No. I am not giving up on you this time. I love you." Alec said, obviously not about to let me go this time.

"How sweet." Damien chuckled, taking a wooden stake out of his jacket pocket and slowly twisting it into Katherine's chest.

"Do you feel that? That's what it feels like to have a wooden stake scraping against your heart." Damien smirked, and it took all of my willpower not to scream. The pain was excruciating now. I looked around, searching for something- anything -that could help me.

That's when I saw it. A pointy, broken tree limb, hanging down right above Damien's back. If I used my telekinesis to move it even a little bit, it would fall down and land directly in Damien's heart, killing him. But...if he died, his body would fall on top of Katherine, who had a stake right on top of her heart. Katherine would die too-and by default, so would I.

Was it worth it? Probably.  But did I have the courage to do it? If it meant sparing Alec's life...of course I did.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to Alec.

"...Sorry for what!?" I realized it probably wasn't a good idea to tell Alec what I was thinking, so I shook off my bracelet and replayed my thoughts for him.

"Kieyra, no. You can't. You'll-"

"Die? I'm aware."

"Please. Please, please don't."

"I have to." I looked over at Katherine, who seemed like she would do anything to get free of Damien and the pain he was inflicting on her. I turned back to Alec, who then sighed.

"You're really going to do this, aren't you."

"It's the only way. You'll just have to let me go."

"But I can't."

"Please? Do it for me? Because I love you? Because you love me?" I was practically begging now. He nodded slowly, never losing eye contact with me.

"Tell my sister in Heaven I said hi. And I miss her." I smiled, feeling my eyes watering.

"Of course." And with that, I turned to Damien, who was staring at us with an extremely confused expression.

"Here goes nothing." I sighed, looking up at the sky. "Goodbye, cruel world." I shifted my gaze to my murder weapon of choice, watching closely as it started to wiggle from side to side, loosening, and then watched as it quickly plummeted into Damien's heart. As I'd predicted, Damien fell straight on top of  Katherine, pushing the stake right into her heart, killing her. Then, there was a quick, silent pause before I lost all feeling in my body and, as quickly as falling asleep, the world faded away into black nothingness.

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A/N: *gasp* omigoogles! Kieyra! Y U GO AND KILL YOURSELF!?!??!?!?!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
hehehe. Well, just a heads up here, this story isn't over yet! *happy dance* it actually has...four or five chapters left? and a sequel?
Oh, and sorry if this chapter makes no sense at all whatsoever. It's 2:25 AM ;P
Bye-Bye for now my lovelies <3
xoxo,
~Kira~