Façade [Book 2] (Glamour Series)

30 | One Fate

Song: "Pearls of Joy" Kevin Kern

*

"Eris, please, listen to me. I know you're in there, come back to me."

The men's faces all close their eyes and open their mouths to let out choking shouts, just strangled and barley audible. I squeeze their lungs, strangling them from a distance as they dangle their feet in the cold winter breeze.

"Eris, please! This isn't like you. The girl I know wouldn't do this! She hates death, and violence. She was only taught to defend herself if need be. Let them go, they only did what that had to do to survive." He steps in front of me, blocking my view of the show. "Please, I'm mad at them too, but I wouldn't kill then for trying to stay alive."

"Survival of the fittest." I growl at him, staring into his dulled oceanic blue gaze of his. I snap all of their necks and they all flop lifeless to the grass floor. Their bodies creating different synchronizing drum beats with the weight of their nothingness.

I continue to stare at Oliver, any front of goodness he thought I had left was drowned in a bucket of boiling bleach. Nothing could reach in to grab it- even if they tried.

Something struck me then, and the calm narcotic phase I was just in raged outward to pity. I pitied Joe. Pitied Laurence. My mother. My friends. My father. Even Oliver. I pitied their very existence.

"I'm sorry." I mumble to him, but I don't cry. Instead, I laugh.

The cool approach Oliver had vanished, and his eyes bore into mine full of grave temptation. "Eris." He whispers solemnly.

Listen to him Eris. Joe says in the distance.

"I pity you." I clamp my lips together.

"Why is that?" Oliver takes a step closer to me, concern edging lines around his eyes.

"You have to die at the hands of the devil." I reply, my hand wrapping around his neck. His eyes bulge, and his hands take my wrist trying to yank my grip from his neck. I squeeze, my muscles leaving no room for his windpipe.

Joe watches, helpless, as he stands behind Oliver's shaking shoulders.

Laurence, whom has been quite for some time now, finally steps over a couple bodies to reach me. He's at eye-level, maybe a little taller than I last remembered him, and spoke softly. "What is it that has angered you?" He doesn't wait for a reply: "Do you feel betrayed? Grief? Loneliness? Or maybe you're in lust with power?"

"I have no lust. I only have myself."

Laurence tsks and looks down at my dress. "Maggie is going to be upset that you ruined her dress don't you think? And what about your mother? She's going to wish to have taken some pictures with you. She does care for you. I may not be the most sentimental guy, but I-"

I cut him off: "I pity you the most." I drop Oliver, my sharp nails still clinging to some of his blood, and he coughs to relieve himself. "You, the real Dead King. The man who left me to train with Oliver so I would gain power, and become battle smart. So when you found where my father was located you could use me to defeat him, isn't that right? You can't even kill the man who cursed you: for yourself! You have to use others to do your dirty work! That's the most pathetic thing anyone has ever done in my book. I put Christina at higher standards than your lowly being."

Laurence doesn't seem phased, and his lips curl to a smile. "So you think you know everything don't you? You think the moon and the stars bow down to the princess of life and death, do you? Let me tell you something, Eris. Remember back some months ago- to the day we met. Do you remember it?

"You had this beautiful golden gown on, and attended one of my annual welcome parties for those who are newly introduced to the magic world. Where humans and supernatural alike are bound together in a neutral environment. In a world where witch and human are known to one another, do you think many would offer such an option? No. War rages between the differences of our likeliness.

"Besides that, I do hold substance Eris. I may seem like a liar, a cheat, and a player but I'm doing what needs to be done. Your father is a man full of evil. He is further corrupted than you are. Do you see how your actions effect the people around you? This is why you have stayed in such solitude. Not because the people around us are bad, but you have a gift that can neither be good nor bad but both. You'll only fulfill a destiny of darkness of you let other people's words get to you. A prophecy is just someone else's words on paper or stone. If you listen to them, and believe in them when they aren't true, you'll slowly become them. Do you understand what I'm saying? Eris, you can only listen to what your heart is saying. Not some scroll or words you have been reminded about your entire life."

"He's right." Oliver breaths, "Eris, only you can make your own destiny. Don't let anyone else tell you what it is."

"Enough!" I scream, my hands flinging to my head. A wind swirls across my form and a funnel of sorts whips my long hair out of its curly bun. The curls wrap and wag about, some clinging to my eyelashes for support. "I'll have no part in your lies any longer!"

Eris, listen to what they have to say.

"Eris please!" Oliver shouts over the raging winds and the thundering storms that dance throughout the night sky. The stars are blotched out one by one till a sky of darkness infests everything around it.

With my eyes gazing into the sky I'm reminded of the nights with Oliver. When he and I went walking through the trees- his hand in mine. The fluorescent wild lights shifting with bright neon colors as if they were welcoming us as a part of nature. Tears swell in my green eyes, and I can't help but let one escape and be swiped away from my hot cheeks by the circling wind.

"Eris." Oliver drops in front of me, and I see the marks that my fingers have left on his skin.

My eyes widen, and I can feel fear ripping at my core. "Oh my God!" I shout, more tears streaming down my stricken features. "Oh my God! No! No no no! No...no! This isn't happening! This can't be happening to me! What's wrong with me? Why did I do? Oh my God!" I try to breath in but it's only let out with my pleads and desperation. The wind doesn't die down, and I continue to scream my sadness into its mouth above. "Why! God? Why me? How could this happen? This can't be happening. No.... No! No..."

Oliver, resting on his knees, leans forward to wraps his arms around me.

I shove him away, making an effort to move away from him. "Get away from me! You shouldn't be near me! I'll just hurt you again!"

Oliver, only moved back slightly, crawls forward to me again- this time taking no time to enfold me in a soft cocoon. My tears stain his black tux jacket, and I sob onto his shoulder. He holds me tighter until I stop struggling, and the storm dies away. He starts to sob with me.

"I'm sorry." He whispers through a damaged croak: "I'm so so sorry, Eris. I never meant to hurt you... I love you. I would die for you."

"You shouldn't," I whisper back.

We sit in each other's arms sobbing like little babies, tears smearing around each other's flushed faces. "Don't ever leave me again." He whispers.

"Never again." But I knew I shouldn't make such proclaimed promises.