NAOMI
There was a special kind of darkness that came with an overcast night. One that Naomi never truly knew. The sun-bathed girl was not accustomed to the nocturnal blanket. She had not been accustomed to a lot of the things she encountered in the passing days. So many aspects of her life were instruments to prolong her innocence. From the prestigious school she attended to the grand estate she called home; her mother protected her from the woes of the world using these shining shields. It was not just her mother either. York's entire population had been weaned on a dream.
The Divide saw the establishment of a delusion, all to keep the community "safe". It was nice inside these walls, and yet what was it worth now that she tasted the truth? As the sun-kissed girl sat in the shadow of her abductor, in the skeleton of a decrepit cathedral, she wondered what she wanted now that she knew.
The Caitlyn Princess looked away from the gaping wound in that holy ceiling and toward the object of Achim's harsh existence: Adlai Arbitor.
They were cramped in a room together, an attic, but each sat at opposing ends. Naomi had not been subdued. In fact the young man refrained from even speaking to her. Maybe it was because her arm was already broken and casted. Either way, he only sat in the shadows of that darkly place with eyes hidden by the hood he wore. Naomi had already been sitting for a few hours, but now she was exhausted of fear as well as patience. She rose. Dusted herself off, and took a step toward the door on the floor.
"Don't move," said Adlai.
Naomi stopped. His voice rekindled a frightful feeling, but a defiant fire shined in her bright eyes. She spoke to him"Why are you keeping me here?"
"Because Achim will come for you," said Adlai.
"You didn't need to kidnap me for him to meet you, you know." Her hands balled into a frustrated fist. "You could have just asked him."
"I know," said Adlai. "It wasn't—It isn't about talking."
"Then what is it about," said Naomi.
"...Justice," Adlai quietly declared.
Naomi glared at Adlai; her bright eyes fixated by a protective anger. "What does that even mean," she shouted.
"It means – It doesn't matter what it means," Adlai responded.
"Tell me," Naomi demanded. She stepped closer, her foot stomping on the floorboards with such force that the walls shivered. The shadow before her shuddered in its corner and refused to answer. "Tell me! Because if you're going to hurt Achim for this 'Justice' you're talking about"—
"And if my justice does demand I harm him," said a vicious voice. A shift occurred. The eldest Arbitor stood up slowly, his darkly presence looming as a monstrous mesh in the night. That was what Naomi felt. The figure before her oozed with malicious threat, and when it took a heavy step to meet her challenge, Naomi understood her brazen folly. She could not compare to this boy. No. To this demon. Even so, as the eldest Arbitor approached, Naomi understood something she had only guessed before.
"Who are you," asked the sun-kissed girl.
"Adlai. Adlai Arbitor," said the Slithering Thing.
"No you're not," she responded.
An eerie silence followed the inquiry. Adlai was taken by the question, and yet the thing beneath his face slowly curved the lines of his lips. It grinned, cackled, and let itself be seen by the dark glow in Adlai's smiling eyes. A black glow that glimmered bright despite the overcast night.
The sun-kissed girl was sucked into its burning oculi and her latent senses were triggered by the inky glint in it gaze. In the pitch Naomi saw flashes of horrors born before time. Memories of an entity beyond age, beyond reality, and the images of its gory experiences. The uncountable number of visions of its amused destruction sent chills stabbing into her spinal cord like cold daggers. Her senses were pinched at every nerve, her skin prickling from the thought of its treacherous doings. She saw It and she saw him – Adlai - buried beneath the terrible weight of their interwoven rage. The pressure seized Naomi's throat and crushed her windpipes in fear.
The serpent saw her weakened will and laughed. Alas, Naomi's knees shook but she did not fall back. Instead, she clenched her fist and hardened her heart before the demon. Its smile faded. "You are an audacious little whelp," said the Slithering Thing. "You have been before my ravenous brother and seen the ruin he wrought. He even broke your arm, so it is not that you are without knowledge...or fear."
"So what," said Naomi. "Just because I'm scared does not mean I am helpless!"
"What is your name, girl," said the Slithering Thing.
"Fuck you," said Naomi.
She was boldly defiant, but before Naomi could relish her obstinance, her throat was in the hands of that malevolent thing. Its grip was so strong that its fingers felt as though they buried beneath her skin and dug toward her esophagus. She was lifted by the serpent, hung by the hand, and left to choke via the creature's violent action. She coughed, hacking up air, until her lungs ran out. The princess would soon just gargle, drowning in the absence of oxygen as the thing that held her up smiled at the deathly display.
"I agree with your sentiment," said the Slithering Thing. "I can see it now. You, girl. You will prove to be a problem."
Naomi flailed her feet desperately, kicking her assailant's form for the smallest vulnerability. Her foot found the ribcage, but it proved far too dense to break. Still, she struggled, time working against her every effort now that the beast was satisfied in seeing her struggle. As her eyes tapered toward the ether, the overcast sky began to meld. The sounds of her own strangulation faded soon after that. Naomi continued to kick but she was falling into darkness. The world would soon go black.
She feared that she would fall away, but that did not mean she would submit to the feeling. Naomi began to scream, roaring a roar that rasped beneath the weight of her death. It was a pathetic sound she made, one of dying prey, but the integrity of the sound did not alter the integrity of the intent. The sun-kissed girl committed herself to fighting, to living, and so the tip of her toes kicked until they flung into the jugular of that darkly demon. She was dropped, rather slammed onto the floorboards. Though free, her daze did not depart quickly. Even so, Naomi was not alone in her wheezing. The serpent's pained breath began to fill her ears.
"You...you are quite interesting," said the Slithering Thing as it coughed. "It is almost a shame to kill you before you blossom. Alas..." The serpent spat black blood from under the hood. Naomi would then see the shadow continue its looming approach before her vision completely cleared.
A prompt escape sent her crawling backward, but that small space offered zero reprieve. The floorboards creeped as the serpent crept, its silhouette increasing in size with every heavy step. Naomi would be engulfed by the abomination, but, before it stole her soul, the serpent was yanked by some unseen restraint. It then spoke to someone, or so it seemed to the girl outside of its mind.
"Just because she is not your goal does not relinquish her influence." said the Slithering Thing. "Is she not the catalyst for your most recent frustrations?"
The creature went silent, its gaze darting as if listening to a voice Naomi could not hear. Soon, it spoke again. "...Your vision remains narrow. See most recent events as I see them," said the Slithering Thing. "Years of inaction, years of waiting for the perfect opportunity. Waiting is no small thing for your kind, and yet patience was demanded for your Justice to be seized at the perfect moment. A moment that began with this girl. One of rare strength and unruly will, both. Surely her emergence here, now, is not by base chance."
The serpent set its inky eyes upon Naomi, and yet the thing saw through her. "This was His work," said the Serpent. "That is why she must die here and now." The serpent again went silent. Its eyes narrowed with burning disgust "...So be it. I will honor your words, Young Lord."
It then stood up and reclaimed the distance between Adlai and Naomi set when she was first brought here. The serpent sat in its darkness now, its eyes fixated on its once sought prey. Naomi suddenly remembered that she needed to breathe. The Caitlyn Princess gasped for air, but confusion wrinkled her countenance. She stared at the thing before her, sweating and shaking.
"You were correct, girl. I am not Adlai Arbitor. That fact that you saw, no, felt the difference is...unexpected. Then again, you saw us before," said the Slithering Serpent. "He will regret not laying you low now, in this moment."
"I-I don't understand," said Naomi.
"You are blind yet you still see so well," said the Slithering Thing. "A miracle, as your mortal kin would describe. You asked for my identity before, did you not?"
"Yes. Tell me who you are, now!"
The creature snickered. "Unbending babe." It then answered. "I am a warrior. One devoted to The Cause."
"What's that? What's The Cause?"
"An effort mere mortals continually prove themselves incapable of fully appreciating. Regardless, if he fails to kill you now, our wills are destined to war against one another. I can see it, written in the words that made the world."
The Serpent seemed to fade after that, its voice slithering into the darkness of the subconscious. There it lay, waiting, watching, from behind those inky eyes. The still figure before Naomi melted away. From the darkness a trembling young man would emerge. One that seemed to shrink the instant he was seen. "You asked me what my Justice was, right?".
"You're him. Achim's brother." Naomi knew instantly.
"I – My Justice is not just to kill Achim. It is to make him suffer the punishment he deserves," said Adlai
"For killing your family," Naomi whispered.
"He told you?" Adlai was silent for a moment. "You two really have become close."
"So what?!"
"I-I'm sorry. It's just..." Adlai spoke meekly. "Achim. The Achim you know – He – He isn't the kid I grew up with. The years have...changed him. M-made him softer."
"And you still want to hurt him?! That's not fair! He's changed right?! He can keep changing!"
"Maybe," said Adlai. "It doesn't matter though. He is still deadly, and what he did is still done."
Naomi scoffed. "You sound like Achim. Resigned."
Adlai was silent for a moment, his mind mulling. "Life. Life isn't fair. The world isn't fair. The universe, none of it. B-but that doesn't mean it needs to stay that way. Maybe. Maybe I can change that. We can change it; Me and him."
"You and that thing that's taking your body?"
Adlai nodded. "It will start with this. With Achim. A cruel boy chosen by a cruel God, forced to learn the lessons of his sin. Achim will learn by feeling the fear of losing a loved one. By losing you. Once he understands the pain, I will personally deal him his death and send him to heaven as a symbol of revolution. Then I will most likely be killed too."
"What?! That doesn't make sense! I don't know if God is real or not, but even if He – smites you? Even He does, won't that mean you can't start your revolution? And why do you even have to do all of that just to get Achim to understand how much he hurt you!? Just talk to him!"
"I refuse," said Adlai. The eldest Arbitor clenched his fist until it bled. "To be honest, the thought of him living happily. It pisses me off. My family gave him everything. He had everything, and what he didn't have he was given because he was 'chosen'. Him throwing it all away just to find it again. W-what sort of world is that? He doesn't deserve it. Just like my family didn't deserve to die by him." Adlai sniffled a little. The young man then pulled his hood down and cradled himself. "I...I am not a hero. I hurt people too, to get here I mean. So whatever happens after Achim is gone, I will accept. It doesn't matter if I die though, because They will know that we think the world is wrong, and that we won't stop trying to make it right. That is how I will help The Cause in exchange for his help with this."
Adlai laid himself limp after that, the eldest Arbitor resigned to the woeful results on the horizon of his crime. Even so, there was no distress wrinkling his person. There was only peace, solemn and content. Watching him in silence, Naomi saw impressions of Achim in his brother's visage. An impression that hearkened back to the impetus of her own trauma and a father that she was loathed to know.
The more Naomi looked, the harsher her brow bent. Her teeth began to grind, and her nails curled against the wood floor until they were defaced. The sun-kissed girl, fire of hair and bright of eyes, began to heave with an uncontainable heat. "You stupid Arbitors," she said in a steaming tongue.
"What did you say?"
"This is stupid! You two want the same thing, but you're too emotionally constipated to see that! Achim thinks I haven't noticed and he hasn't said anything, but I know he feels the same way you do. Throwing your lives away for this is stupid. You're cowards!" Naomi was far too fumed to feel fear now. She rose from her imprisonment and walked toward the door yet again. The consequences be damned. Achim and Adlai could burn in the fires of self-immolation for all she cared.
As she pulled to open the hatch, the door proved well-secured. Naomi would yank, pulling at the rusted lock with her single arm until the gears grew weak. The thing would explode open and she would toss the wood door aside as if it were loose parchment. The Caitlyn Princess proclaimed that she was officially finished with this charade, but the true strangeness came when Adlai did not stop her.
"You're right," said Adlai. Naomi stopped just before she placed a foot on the ladder. "I...I am a coward. I-I've always been a coward. Even when I was a kid." The eldest Arbitor hung his head low before he professed his feelings. "I was the oldest, but I...I could never do the things Achim could do. I was never as smart, as athletic, or as talented. Hell. I still have trouble reading small signs and even simple sentences." Adlai sighed. "So many times, I wanted to tell Achim how I felt. I wanted to tell him about how he treated people, about how he treated all of us, but I never could. I was afraid of him. Afraid of what he'd think about me. Even now, I can't face him. I...I need his help to do it. I...I need his help to do everything," said Adlai. "B-because I have always been weak, and Achim has always been strong."
"So, you're just jealous." Naomi's tone softened.
"Yeah. Jealous, and sad," said Adlai.
"Then you need to just say that."
"No. It's too late now. I am afraid to face Achim, but I want him to pay. He will help me do that. And if I ask, he'll help me kill you too." The dead look in Adlai's darkly eyes informed Naomi well. Her instincts knew that he spoke true. And yet the eldest Arbitor lowered his head again. "T-that's only if I ask though. I...I haven't decided whether I should make you suffer for Achim's sins. It isn't right, so maybe I'll just – Maybe I'll make you play dead or something. I'm not sure."
Naomi stared. All the threat she associated with the eldest Arbitor simply fell away. She then just burst out in a blushing laughter. The sun-kissed girl nearly fell down the hatch as she attempted to hold her sides. She laughed so hard she cried, tears rolling down her freckled face. She then just looked at Adlai and smiled.
"You and Achim really are brothers, huh," said Naomi.
"I guess. Just stay here. If not, I'm not sure I'll be able to control him. He already wanted to kill you, but now he's really serious about it."
"The other guy: Right," said Naomi. "Thank you for letting me know." She climbed back up and retook her position as prisoner. She then called to him "Adlai?"
"Hm?"
"Don't kill Achim. Please."
Adlai said nothing. He only looked the other way as if he had heard that tired request a thousand times. Naomi continued, her desire pressing against his.
"If you do, I will not just sit by. I don't care how strong you or that other guy behind your eyes are." Naomi spoke firmly. "You will end up having to kill me whether you want to or not."
The eldest Arbitor scoffed, but she would not be discouraged.
"But, so it does not have to come to that, I want to tell you what I learned about Achim in the past few days. Things you might not know. I-it might change your mind and maybe we can all laugh about it after the fact. Right?"
Naomi would begin the tale of their trot. Beneath that overcast night, in the shadows of that ailing cathedral, she spun harrowing webs of actions and reactions done in the name of finding the young man she saw now. The story left her bright as she blissfully mused on all the things Achim had done to endear or entice. Indeed, she hoped to paint a picture. One where the dark boy of moonlight could be redeemed in the eyes of his ultimate end: Adlai. Oh, how she glowed in the clutches of her darkest hour and all because of him. But, unbeknownst to Naomi, bright lights cast the longest shadows.
. . .
For those who have read this far, you have my humblest appreciations. The story is slowly coming to closer to the climax and, with this chapter, you finally met the whisper I Adlai's ear. He has a name - They all have names - but that is a tale for another chapter.