Remember

Chapter Twenty-Nine

It was terrifying to know what was inside her. To know the truth of what she was. The darkness that she had seen so many times as it almost killed Madie -- or rather the dream version of Madie. As it had lept inside the guard in the government compound and strangled him from the inside. The very thing that she had feared ever since she first learned about it was inside her. It was her. And it did not like being trapped under her skin nor did it enjoy being controlled.

The sadistic emotions that had washed over her when she felt the caress of the darkness against her skin had actually pleased her. She had not feared the feeling but embraced it as an old friend. She wanted to feel it. In fact, her body craved the feeling it had given her. It was a drug and if she was to survive, she needed it. Or perhaps she only wanted it. Colette could no longer tell the difference between the two.

Even now, as Colette lie passed out in her room in the village her body begged to release the murderous power inside her. If only for a split second, just so it could get the slightest taste of the blood thirsty emptiness that had flooded her system when her power had exploded from her.

The darkness had it's own emotions. It purred in her mind with delight over what it had done in that field to all those people. It spoke to her, not with words but with something like a siren's song. It made her feel and think things that no other human should. It turned her mind to mush and rendered her inner voice useless. Everything the darkness wanted, the darkness got.

Colette didn't know how she forced it back into her system. Didn't know what she would do if she ever let it escape again. Already her first effort had caused her to fall unconscious. It drained every ounce of energy she had inside her.

Finally she came to. Slowly but surely her eyes blinked confusedly around the room. She could not remember where she was or how she had gotten there. She couldn't even remember the horrible thing she had done. The memories were there, but her mind was too tired to bring them to the surface. Colette had a sickening feeling in her gut that she didn't want to know whatever it was.

She pushed herself up on her elbows, sending a shot of dizziness to her mind and causing her to fall back into the bed. A groan escaped her cracked lips and she noticed dirt was caked all over her body and under her fingernails. It stained the clothes she was wearing and was probably thick in her dirty hair. Whoever had put her in her bed had not had the care to clean her up in the slightest bit.

Prissy stepped into the room, her pistol was not strapped to her side like it normally was. Instead she held a tray in her hands with a glass of water and some food on it. Colette furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Surely Prissy was not the one assigned to take care of her. Prissy was a soldier not a table side nurse or servant.

Colette watched Prissy walk around to the other side of her bed and set the tray down on her night stand. Color flushed the girl's cheeks when she noticed Colette's intense gaze.

"Nobody else dared to go in here." Prissy said the words quietly, her eyes flickering towards the closed bedroom door. "They're too scared after what they saw you do last night." Prissy was scared as well, that much Colette could tell.

The memories still did not come to Colette. They stayed ghosting, just barely unreachable in the back of her mind. "Then why are you here? Aren't you scared?" Prissy took a deep breath and studied Colette for a moment.

"People are not their powers. I do not think you could control what you were doing. Your power may be evil, but you are not. At least, I don't think you are." Finally the memories flooded back to her in quick flashes. The clearing. The guards. The war. And then finally a release of the darkness. Darkness that had come from her.

"No." She breathed out as the scenes continued to flash. She remembered hurting so many people, she remembered the rush that she felt, and then she remembered collapsing. Colette hadn't made the power stop at all. The power had stopped because she was no longer conscious enough for it to thrive in the real world. It had merely sucked all the energy out of her. "But I am evil. I- I hurt so many people. Oh god." A warmth flooded her cheeks as tears began to spill down them.

Prissy gave her a sad expression and sat down on the very end of her bed. Colette didn't understand how she could even sit there. Why wasn't she cowering in fear? Everyone else had the right idea to stay as far away from her as possible. Prissy must be brave or maybe she was just insanely reckless.

Colette watched the young girl stare off at her nightstand deep in concentration. When the girl's eyes didn't move from the spot they were fixated on Colette looked as well. Prissy seemed to be staring at the withering, near death plant that sat on the corner of the nightstand. Colette sneaked a glance back at Prissy but the girl was still staring at the plant. Out of curiosity Colette began to watch the plant as well, as if it would backflip off the table.

It did not. Instead the lifeless plant began to gain green back into its features little by little, starting with the stem. Slowly the plant came back to life, thriving and blooming. Creating the most beautiful of flowers. Colette stared in awe, wishing that she had a power like hers. One where she could create life instead of destroy it.

Another glance was snuck in Prissy's direction but when Colette looked back at the flowers -- well they were not flowers at all. The once beautiful flowers were now replaced by ugly stems of deadly looking thorns and the green had turned into a dark brown. Colette gasped and locked eyes with Prissy whose features held true disappointment for her creation.

"Powers do not define a person." Prissy quickly got off the bed and left Colette alone once again.