The Dark Side

~26~

Four hours left.

Four hours till she died.

Neri'el felt a laugh rise in her throat. It exited her mouth as a choke.

All this time she had spent fighting. All the lives that had been lost along the way. Jempa, the younglings, Tekka, the villagers, possibly Poe and Finn.

All for nothing.

Hopelessness sank through Neri'el, draining her very soul. Slowly, she closed her eyes to block out the gray light of the room.

That was when the ghosts of her past came to haunt her. Eerie, mud colored gossamers hovered around in her subconscious, looking more like tormented souls than anything else. The ghosts of everyone she had failed to save. They slowly turned to face her. Their mouths were gaping abysses that stretched towards the floor. Then they began to scream. They raced at Neri'el screaming their hatred at her.

"YOU LEFT ME TO DIE!" Tekka's wizened corpse screamed. Ugly laser wounds went right through him, each revealing his blackened innards. "I SAVED YOU, YET THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?"

"I-I-I-I'm sorry," Neri'el gasped trying to shield herself from the monster.

He roared and raced towards her before dissipating through her, his scream ringing in her ears.

Hyperventilating, Neri'el raised her head to look at another monster hovering right at her eye line.

Two dull blue eyes met hers.

"J-jempa," Neri'el croaked desperately, "I tried to save you!"

Jempa tilted her head to the left and drifted backwards.

Neri'el felt her stomach drop as she saw the hole in Jempa's midriff.

"You tried to save me?" Jempa asked in a hollow voice. Her voice was cold. Dead. Divorced from the one she had when she was alive.

Jempa leaned forwards towards Neri'el and whispered, "You failed."

The young girl's face twisted in rage.

"YOU LEFT MY CORPSE TO ROT!"

The skin of her face began to crinkle.

"YOU LEFT ME!"

The skin flaked free, revealing muscles, tendons and glassy eyeballs.

"YOU FORGOT ME!" Jempa's skeleton screamed.

"NO! NO I NEVER-" Neri'el choked, "I WILL NEVER-"

"I HATE YOU!"

Jempa's skeleton dissolved into brown mist right before Neri'el's eyes.

Neri'el's heart raced, pounding against her ribcage, fighting to escape her chest. Sweat trickled down the sides of her forehead. Terror spread through her veins like a wildfire, destroying the what was left of her

"I'm so sorry," Neri'el whispered brokenly as a new ghost appeared.

Neri'el saw it out of the corner of her eyes but couldn't bear to look.

"Please," she begged, "No more, no more."

The ghost ignored her pleas and slowly glided towards her. It stopped right before her, its ugly brown folds drifting aimlessly around.

"You're pushing me away again? 'Cause that worked out so well last time."

Neri'el's heart sank. As soon as the ghosts appeared, she knew he would come. And out of all the ghosts this was the one she dreaded to meet the most.

Slowly she turned her head to face him.

He didn't even look real.

He was brown, like all the others. More misty and vaporous than human. His hair was bushy and thick behind his ears. His eyes dark and filled with malice. The ends of his robes were wispy brown tendrils that crawled upon the floor.

"Ben, I-I was in pain," she began quietly, ducking her head.

"AND I WASN'T?" the ghost snarled. The ghost's hand encircled her chin forcing it upwards to stare into its black eyes.

"YOU SHUT ME OUT!" The ghost screamed. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT'S LIKE?"

"Ben, Ben, I'm sorry," Neri'el cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her head dropped to her chest as he let her go in disgust. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Sorry doesn't change the past," the ghost of Ben spat. He glared at her, his face transforming from a boy's features into the mask of his older self. The slitted slivers of metal slid into place slowly hiding the man's face from Neri'el.

"Nor will it save you in the future," the gossamer Ben stated coldly as a lightsaber appeared in his hands.

Neri'el closed her eyes as the ghost saber sliced through the air in a downward arc towards her head. The heat was so real, the singeing pain, the feeling of the laser effortlessly cutting through her scalp.

A loud whoosh brought her back into reality and her eyes flew wide as the door opened to admit her white clad guards.