Parousia

~ THE STORM ~

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Then, Avodus began to reason with herself. For if she was the one creating this world, there had to be some way to divide herself from Lucifer and save her girls. And so, she created a separate world, one of ice and no warmth, a mirror to the man in front of her.

"And what if I could remember why I loved you? Would you change your ways?" she asked Lucifer.

"Isn't it time to write a new chapter? Some rules were meant to be broken, you know. Taking things out of context, misconstruing them, and then doling out punishment is the old way. I thought you were above all that."

He had done it again, fractured her resolve, but now she knew fractures could mend and heal.

"What have I misconstrued? I barely had the new world built and you had to go and interfere, forcing your way upon us without our consent. It's time to say Goodbye!"

With that, she waved her hand in the air and his dark hair began to swirl with the storm he created. Before too long his whole body was circling about, narrowing, like water going down a drain. But, before he completely disappeared, frozen in Avodus' new hell, he made one last statement behind an evil smile.

"Avodus, darling, I will never disappear. I will be the temptation behind every pined for kiss, the hunger for every uneaten bite of deliciousness, the adrenaline rush you crave."

Araceli, Vee, and the man sat next to a rock cliff opposite the voracious storm. Since the man could not keep his hands off Vee, Araceli sat between them. Beyond the upside down lightning and past the glowing tree trunks, Araceli saw a sparkle of hope, the end of the wall cloud taller than any she'd seen before. She lightly tapped Vee and the man's arms and then pointed in the direction of the end of the storm.

Vee and the man both clapped and Araceli wondered if it was a human condition or something her mother instilled in their genetics but they weren't exactly human were they. She wondered what else was different about them. They needed shelter just like her. That's when she noticed the amount of rain they had received for the sky was so low she could almost reach up and touch it and while that had always been a feeling she had on Earth, here on Zitro is was an actual, possible reality.

As Vee and the man looked at her for more wisdom since she had been the one to find the end of the storm, Araceli's arms began moving without her permission. They grabbed a log leaning against the rock and then her feet walked back toward the wood where they had come from all while her head knew this was not what she should be doing. But, she could not stop what was happening from happening. Vee and the man followed her and mimicked her moves until she realized they were building something, a shelter, a shelter from the never ending rainstorm.

Thyone saw all this from the screen in the cave and she worried for Araceli who while being one to think with the heart first still had a good head on her shoulders. But, to walk away from the direction of the cave to build a shelter made absolutely no sense. Why not join Mada and her in the cave instead?

She knew something must be amiss but was relived for at least the lion had finally drifted to sleep, his striped fur rhythmically moving up and down. She grabbed Mada's hand to get his attention and regretted the action immediately. There, where her hand touched his, was a warmth and comfort she had longed for, but she knew it was the work of Lucifer.

She pointed to the lion but had to follow that by placing a hand on Mada's mouth before he yelled in joy. Mada then put his hand on her lower back, wrapping her and pulling her in and she had to push away. If Lucifer was going to play hardball, so was she. No one messed with her sister and got away with it, no one!

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