Darkness Girl: Trickster God

Chapter Sixty-Six: Unassailable Heights

Trevellian twisted his knife delicately between his fingers and smiled. 'How repulsively melodramatic. Your fumbling attempts at manipulation are like watching a child try to lie.' 

Kessler looked at him like he was a strange species of butterfly knocking against the side of the killing jar, and Sarafina felt a moment of familiarity. This woman reminded her of Regan in many ways, but where Regan seemed to have a seething cauldron of rage burning inside her, this woman was a void. There was no anger in the way she looked at Trevellian. Instead, her eyes had a cold intensity that made Sarafina feel like a weight was being pressed into her chest. 

'I know the weakness inside you, Trevellian. All of the illusions that used to cover your inadequacies were stripped bare when Regan broke you.' 

Trevellian's smile didn't waver, but he clenched his fingers around the handle of his knife. 

Kessler lifted her chin and looked down at him. 'I know the truth of your betrayal. You knew your freedom came with a price, but you took it anyway. It was an act of cowardice in line with your character.' 

Trevellian's face was drawn in the darkness. His smile was gone now. 'You talk as if your part in that was inevitable.' 

'It was up to you to leave your girl behind. She always thought you'd come back to save her, even at the end. Given what she was, her understanding of other people was surprisingly under-developed. She should have known what you were.' 

Trevellian looked like he was slowly being overtaken by a creeping, virulent disease. The colour was gone from his cheeks, and his lips were pale. 'She didn't deserve to be punished.' 

Kessler brushed a lock of white hair behind her ear and looked over her shoulder. 'There was always something about her that lacked substance. People like that don't deserve the lives they're given.' 

Sarafina followed Kessler's eyes. She could see a shape moving in the darkness of the petrol station. 

'There's someone there,' said Forester. 

Sarafina looked into the darkness and listened. She heard footsteps. They seemed slow and unsteady, like a person carrying a heavy load. She felt a cold tightening in her stomach. 

As she watched, the person in the darkness walked out from the shadows. Sarafina clamped a hand over her mouth. 

In life, he had been a man with heavy limbs and thick muscle, but now he simply looked like a corpse that had been left in a fridge and forgotten. The skin hung from his flesh like an oversized wetsuit and his lips had shrivelled back to expose his teeth. There was something wrapped in bandages growing out of his stomach that looked like a large, ungainly sports bag. 

As the man got closer, Sarafina saw the thing in bandages twitch. It turned to face her, and she realised it was a person -- the armless torso of a girl. Her entire body had been wrapped in bandages, leaving only her face exposed. 

'Oh god,' said Forester. 'I think she's alive.' 

'This is sick, Kessler,' said Trevellian. 'It's wrong.' 

The girl's head moved to follow the sound, like a plant turning to face the sun. There was a film across her eyes like frozen milk. Her empty gaze rested on Trevellian and didn't move. 

Trevellian ran his hand through his hair. 'What has she been made into? And what about him? He was dead. I saw what Regan did to him.' 

'Even when he was alive, Pyotr was little more than a collection of base instincts. Death has made the outlet for his talents more focused.'