Hybrid: The Prologue (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter Ten, Loss

Chapter Ten, Loss

I closed my eyes as I heard Avalon’s screams. I heard the high-pitched whistle, coming from the laser, getting higher and higher. My heart is beating so fast. I’m shaking.

“God . . .please . . .” I whispered.

        Tears flow down my cheeks as I hear the beep of the remote button being pressed. I feel the heat of the solar beam, ready to do I-don’t-know-what to me.

“Help . . .” I whisper. My heart is going so fast, I can barely breathe.

      I hear the blast and feel a burning pin on my left hand. They must’ve missed, I thought. I opened my eyes slowly. Blood was all over my hand. There’s a bloody gash on my palm. The searing pain makes me suck in as much air as I would if I needed to live underwater for a whole year. Then a feel a heavy thump on my abdomen. I squint down in horror. I hyperventilate and stare down at the laser's product. My heart is squeezing.

“A-Avalon!”

           There was blood all over the right side of her abdomen and right arm. She was facing me and I could clearly see she was suffering. She clutched the giant wound and blood started dripping from her mouth. Nyx stared in horror. His eyes are wide. He pressed one of the buttons on the remote and dropped it. The belts let go of me and I grabbed a hold of Avalon’s heated, shaking body. Nyx collapses on his knees again. Axis stares, surprised.

      Zavion looks at his daughter like she’s crap. Avalon is suffering so much. My heart feels so torn. That unexplainable, agonizing feeling of pain in your heart when something emotionally bad happens. I stepped down from the vertical platform and went to help Avalon. She’s still on me but now her blood is dripping everywhere. She grabbed my shirt and lifted herself up to my ear.

“X-Xena . . .P-please . . .help Nyx . . .” She whispered weakly. She put something in my hand but I didn’t pay attention to it. I felt her body get hotter and hotter. Avalon let go and fell to the floor. Then she started disappearing. There was a slight breeze in the room. The breeze slowly blew on her till she wasn’t there anymore. She was disappearing like wind blowing on sand. She lay as a pile of ashes. My tears were unstoppable. My moans and sobbing were heard loudly around the room. Nyx looked down, then up and started screaming at the ceiling. Some ashes got on Zavion’s black suit pants. Zavion looked slowly down and he brushes it off , digusted.

“Well, that’s one mistake I don’t have to worry about!” Zavion sadistically said and laughed.

Nyx stood up and screamed with rage.

“That’s you’re daughter that you just brushed off!” Nyx firmly and angrily said. He has tears running down his cheeks. He walked closer to Zavion and got all up in his face.

“She was also my sister. .” He whispered. Zavion stopped laughing.

“Well, you’re my son.” Zavion seriously said as he put his hand on Nyx’s shoulder.

“That was a simple . . .uh . . thing that she put upon herself. At least, we know the laser was a failure!” Zavion chuckled.

Tears fell from my eyes in hatred. As I cried I saw something twinkling in my hand. I held in my hands a gold chain. I wiped my tears with my right hand, holding the necklace with my left. At the end of the gold chain was a trapped pendant; a shining ruby butterfly inside a gold oval. I’ve never seen it. Ever. I looked closer. There was an inscription; ελεύθερος. Whatever that means.

Nyx looked at the pendant and sighed.

“It’s my sister’s. She bought it on a trip with our mother.” Nyx looked to me from the necklace. “It was when we were younger . . .when our mom was alive.”