A Light After Endless Darkness

Chapter 14

After a few minutes, Elizabeth opened the hatch.

She and Hagen had turned a chest of drawers over onto it, trapping the population of Gardenia inside... You know, just to keep them safe.

"Elizabeth!!" Sydney was screaming. "Elizabeth!!!"

He burst out of the trapdoor, looking frantically around until he saw Zarix. For a second, he looked confused, like what he was seeing couldn't possibly be correct. Then, as the others slowly ventured out of the hole, he turned and looked at Elizabeth, as if he were seeing her for the very first time.

After several seconds of complete silence, he said, "You... you won?"

"Yes," said Elizabeth as Aynna ran out and hugged her. "Well... Hagen helped. Dabir-" Dabir jolted as he climbed out of the hole, "-you've taught him well."

"Aw," Hagen blushed as Jackson and a few other men rushed over to Zarix to move him to the dungeon. "Shucks..."

"Thank goodness you're okay," Rei breathed as she rushed up and brushed Elizabeth's hair back from her face.

"You handled that way better than I would've," Ana gushed.

Elizabeth groaned inwardly. Great. All she'd done was garnished more hero worship from these people...

"Elizabeth-Person," said Aynna, looking up at her with a fog of exhaustion, "I'm tired. Can we walk home?"

My little deus ex machina, she thought with a smile as she caressed Aynna's hair. "Of course we can, Aynna person. I'm tired, too." She glanced at Rei. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No, please. I should wait for Jackson."

So, hand in hand, Aynna and Elizabeth walked down the abandoned streets, both asleep on their feet.

¨Was that the bad person you had to fight?"

"Indeed it was."

"Does that mean you can stop training now?"

"No," Elizabeth felt a knot grow in her throat. "Because this isn't over. Not by a long shot."

~~~~

Elizabeth and Aynna were walking down a busy street, buzzing with faceless figures. If didn't matter. She was here and Aynna was safe, that was all that mattered.

"So he's been defeated," said Aynna in a dreamy, lilting voice. "That's nice."

"Yeah, it is," agreed Elizabeth, smiling down at her. The sky was turning dark, but she wasn't sure why.

"But then, if you defeated him now, why not then?"

Elizabeth jolted; she was sure she'd explained this to the kid. "Well... because I wasn't strong enough."

"Well that clearly hasn't changed at all."

"Excuse me?!" Elizabeth jolted, but part of her didn't wish to dislike the comment.

The sky was pitch black now. The street, than the quaint cobblestone had somehow turned to dirt. Coarse, harsh gravel.

"I mean..." the little girl turned to her, and she was no longer Aynna. "... you weren't strong enough to protect me."

Elizabeth gasped and backed up several paces. Habe. Habe was here, looking at her with those frightened, innocent, green eyes. "You weren't there for me," she told her, slimy, jagged fingernails digging into her sisters flesh. "I was with him for seven years, sissy. All alone."