ONE CHAPTER LEFT
~~~
KELLIN'S P.O.V
The ground was trembling more and more with every hit thrown in both directions, whether it be a kick to the stomach aimed at myself or a blow to the face making contact with the disheveled skin of Oli's. The trembling and quivering almost equaled how much Vic's lips were, I'd given up on looking over in his direction at this point simply because it just hurt to see the soundless screams he'd attempt to let escape to end the conflict between Oli and I.
If honesty was my strongest point, then I wouldn't have had to constantly lie to myself in order to persuade myself to let my naïvety sink through and let myself believe I was getting somewhere close to winning. Unfortunately, I was cursed with the not quite so convenient habit of appearing as a sore loser. Perhaps the fake spirit I had implanted into my consciousness, my entire being, was a good thing because maybe then it might have just been what had kept me going.
That or the sudden realisation that Copeland was still somewhere waiting for Vic and I to return to her.
Oil came at me again with intentions such as making my perfect face less so perfect but I highly even for a slight second doubted that to be possible. That was my honesty at it's finest.
I dodged by ducking down low and caught a glimpse at the ever growing cracks in the ground. Using the minimal time that I had, I snatched a look at to the far distance to see that part of the ground was breaking off and actually crumbling. The thing was though, was that we were above the clouds. We'd made gravity stop in it's path and were, not so settled might I add, in the sky.
The sky was falling apart.
My attention still remained clung to Oli and wanting to bash his pathetic, little face in but my worries immediately lied with Vic and Copeland within a split second. Defeating Oli was the most important issue I was facing that had to be dealt with no matter what the cost, I knew that, but my priority was insuring Vic and Copeland's safety.
After the time I had managed to go ignoring Vic in his huge, intimidating cage, I couldn't help myself but glance in his direction just to remind myself that he was still at least just okay. When I made eye contact with him, I wasn't quite too sure if my actions were regretted or not.
The look in his eye made me feel like I was losing him. My Angel, who always had this beam of light surrounding him, dimmed. His eyes looked hollow and swollen, his face empty of expression. I think he had just given up on feeling.
Was it because of me ignoring him whilst I tried to fight Oli? Was it because of all the suffering he had gone through and that now enough was enough? Or was it just the plain fact that he was just done?
Surely, even if he was done with fighting and trying to survive, surely, he wasn't done with me.
With my mind being clouded by so many thoughts, I suppose that gave Oli the time he needed to plant a supreme blow to my impeccable face. The force of it though blew me back and I slid on my back towards the cage, only stopping once I landed against the giant imprisonment.
To think about being able to fight anymore would have just been delusional of me. Reality itself had not only slapped me in the face, but full on had me choking on my own blood that I coughed up, enough to know that. I was in no shape or form prepared to carry on raging forward, no way. I'd become a hopeless case.
Who was I to even believe I stood a chance against Oli? If I could even call him by that name right now, it didn't take a genius to figure out that S had given part of himself to Oli. S's soul, if he even had one, was inside Oli and probably eating away at him more and more. In what word would I have ever been able to come out on top in a situation such as this? No world, that was the answer, no world whatsoever.
This whole entire struggle had been built atop of hope but even that, there never was an endless supply of it. I guess, I truly lost hope when I let go of my humanity and my humanity is something I can't even recall having especially right now, as I faced and fought the Devil himself or at least part of him.
I placed my hand to the side of me to gain support as I tried to push myself up off of the ground. To my surprise the ground had quit shaking which resulted in a smirk traced on Oli's lips. That set off a thought in my idiotic excuse of a mind. Not even once before had it even triggered that I had been causing the splitting of the ground or that it was to my advantage.
I tried to look back at Vic, give him some kind of message to indicate my new theory to him but he didn't get it. Although, I think I preferred his warning of screaming my name so that I could move out the way before Oli stabbed me and it was all over.
All I had managed to do was crawl across the ground slightly to try and manoeuvre my way around him. That didn't make the crisis any better, it didn't stop the fact that he was still standing whilst I was cowering under his gaze.
"Oli," I spluttered. Maybe the blood wasn't yet satisfied with how much of itself had already spilled out of me, "What are you even doing?"
He took a step back at that question, supposedly it threw him off guard. It was clear what he was doing, he was trying to kill me.
"I'm trying to fucking kill you," he said threw gritted teeth. The step back he took before was quickly replaced by a step twice as large and in the direction I was a huddled mess in.
"Why aren't you trying to kill Vic? How do you even have Vic?" I asked. By this point I was struggling to breathe but the thought of Vic in mind kept me going. I didn't even need to breathe anyway. I was losing it. I was slowly losing my mind.
"Kellin?" Vic whimpered from where he stood, hands clung tightly around the bars of the cage. To him, the first question probably sounded as though there was a sense of bitterness to it as if the question that was asked was, 'why are you trying to kill me and not him?'
I shook my head dismissively, just waiting to see if Oli would answer me. What he did do was laugh, maybe even sadistically. No, definitely sadistically.
He crouched down in front of me and leaned in closely. Having someone who wasn't Vic this distance away from me made me feel sick to my stomach. He gently placed his index finger and thumb underneath my chin, forcing me to lift it up as he examined my face.
"Hm," he mused, "Seems like I did a pretty good job at bashing your face in."
"No doubt I still look better than you."
"No doubt you do," he smirked.
It felt great to then just cough up a shit load of blood in face. What perfect timing. He didn't even flinch, instead he licked the blood surrounding his lips. I was pretty certain that I was going to throw up sooner or later.
Oli flicked his dagger up towards me and I noticed that it was a weapon that he hadn't yet shown to me. All I knew from looking at it was, was that if it even so much as scratched me then I was a goner.
I couldn't move, not when I had that threat right in front of me. With panic stricken eyes I tried to look back at Vic for what could be a final time. What I saw broke my heart. He was trying again. The emotions he was so used to feeling were making their way back and with the state I was in, I wouldn't have been surprised if they were driven back due to me being practically almost dead, as in proper dead. He was trying to urge the bars to open, the sweat dripping down his face was visible from here and unfortunately so was the look of utter distress. I didn't want that to be the last expression I see on him.
Oli shuffled around slightly and then made himself slightly more comfortable before placing the dagger in front of my throat.
"Since I'm going to kill you I guess I could let you have a few final last words. Who knows, I might even make them famous," he grinned. As if he could even gain any fame himself to begin with.
If I was going to die for real, right then and there, then I wanted to final words to be to Vic but I doubted he'd want to listen right now nor even believe them to be my final words. I failed to believe it either.
I found it a shame that I couldn't remember my final words as a human so I found it important that I made these words count although I was serious about my last words being said to Vic so of course, I just had to make sure that these wouldn't be my final words.
I looked up him with a look that was nothing more than disgust, "Why?"
He raised his eyebrow, "Is that it?"
I nodded, "If my finals words are to be as short as these then why not have them be answered too?"
I was amusing him and honestly, it was just a way of buying time. I couldn't give a damn about his life story, not that he exactly had much of a life anymore, "Okay. It's not like you're going to live to tell anyone. I suppose first I'll answer your question about Vic. I'm not killing him simply because I don't want to yet. Heaven were so easy to convince that I held Vic here to keep him safe, that I was actually guarding him from anyone who came to get him. Stupid really, isn't it? The truth is that Vic is here so that he's in Hell's grasp now, we've caught him. We've won."
I was ready to rip his face off at that but I bit my lip and kept my mouth shut tight. Vic was still trying to barge the cage open like a mad man.
"You were an Angel, how did you end up like this?" I asked. I really thought I had pushed it there but he just aimlessly shrugged. What did he have to lose anyway? He was going to kill me, there was nothing wrong with granting my wish of delivering this information.
"I take it you won't know what the room of 'Felicitas Aeterna' is s-"
"I do actually."
He paused for a moment and studied my facial expressions. I remembered that that room was something I wasn't meant to know, after all I didn't belong in Heaven, "Okay. So 'Felicitas Aeterna'. I guess the ideal image I had imagined was Heaven and Hell combined and both worlds in peace together. It worked for a while but then the truce began to show faults and soon it fell apart. The two sides broke out into war and I routed for Hell. S, he.. He can sense whenever Hell is being thought of so somehow he knew of this ideal or dream or whatever the fuck it was that I had and began contacting me in secret and so, the uprising of Hell began.
I was always assessing Vic and I guess stalking him because I had to see how close you two were getting. I mean, after all if you two got too close and your love was too strong then you could easily beat me so I had to keep you apart. It's like the Yin Yang, I suppose, you're Hell and he's Heaven. Put that together and boom. Perfect balance of evil and goo-"
He must have caught ahold of his ramblings and stopped himself. That was the realisation I was after. I was so stupid to not realise that that was what the mirror Kellin was getting at. From the looks of things, Vic had been paying attention too.
We would've made a move if it wasn't for the sudden movement Oli made to clutch at his own head and start ripping his hair out, dropping the dagger in the process. I quickly scrambled to reach over and grab it whilst still watching the scene unfolding in front of me.
"You fucking idiot," when Oli opened his mouth it wasn't his voice I heard. It was a booming, much deeper and a lot more threatening one.
"I- I'm sorry!" Oil screamed back at himself as kept his hands over his ears and fell to his knees.
"No, that's it. I've had enough!" The voice, I recognised as S', bellowed. The next Oli looked up, his eyes were red and that was it. No going back now. This wasn't Oli anymore.
"No, I've had enough," a smaller yet rather intimidating voice seethed from behind Oli's figure. I looked to the cage and I found my grinning at the fact Vic was no longer captive.
If what we were told about us being the weapon to take down S was true then we needed to be stronger than ever and stronger than ever is what we would be. Shakily, I stood up until I was on my feet with an arm hanging to the side, many missing teeth, blood stained hair, revealed flesh and a smile that wouldn't falter.
I thought of Vic and his smile. I thought of him and when we first spoke and the feelings I felt then to the drastic change in feelings to now. My mind drifted to what I went through to make him happy and the journey to retrieve his brother. I reminded myself of all the doubt from myself and those around us but also my sheer will to carry on for him for that reason that was still unknown to me. I recalled the times where I thought I'd lost my sanity for good and the insanity that was Vic Fuentes to replace the missing sense of control of normality. I told myself just how in love I was with him.
And I think Vic was thinking the same.
The Oli in front of us now had turned around to face Vic but he was frozen. Paralysed. He couldn't move a muscle. To my relief the ground had been shaking again, of course, that made fight harder but I was pretty convinced it was a win for us when the ground began to crack because the only ground that showed sign of moving was the area surrounding Oli. S. Whatever he was.
With him frozen in place I took the dagger and that was it, I charged and the piercing scream that was released from his lips was the most satisfying sound I had heard in a long time. I removed the dagger from his back and then placed it back in again, stabbing as brutally as I could. What I really wanted to aim for was those eyes and so, just like that, I did.
Vic had stayed put, giving me support and making sure neither of us were to back down as the ground continued to break. I let go of Oli and stepped around him, taking hold of Vic's hand. I turned my attention back to Oli, gripping his hair and tugging him along to the edge of the floor where it met the sky. Where it just ended.
I walked him to the edge, his back facing the sky and drop below us, to the point where he was so far back that his heels were almost over the edge and he was cautiously standing on his toes whilst panic was written all over his usually smug face. I smirked as I put a hand to his chest.
"Go back to Hell for Heaven's sake," I said and watched him fall.
***
"Okay, Vic, we've got to go. We don't know when this floor's going to give in and we then end up in the same position as we put Oli in," I said in a hurry and yanked on his hand for him to start moving as we ran away from the floor that didn't seem to want to stop crumbling.
I felt guilty for making him run and use up so much effort after what he'd been through but I had to make sure he got out of this alive. He meant so much to me and now that that was over, he was mine and there were no obstacles left for us to face for us to stay together forever. Just how it should be.
We ran for a while and it seemed as though the cracks in the floor were following us until we made it to where I'd left Copeland. I looked back over my shoulder for two reasons; one, to know for definite that the cracks had stopped seemingly following us and two, to check that Vic was able to keep going. I decided both were fine and kept running until Vic pulled on my arm for me to stop.
"We did it," he said quietly looking at the ground below his feet, "We did it which means you really must love me. Someone loves me." The way he said that was the happiest I had ever seen him and when he threw his arms around me and I felt wet patches begin to form on my shoulder as he nuzzled his face into it, I knew that my love was returned. I wrapped my arms around him and held him tightly. I'd never let someone as perfect as this go. Never.
"Daddy? Daddy, is that you?" a small, innocent voice called out from behind us. I let go of Vic and turned around smiling to see Copeland standing there, unharmed.
"D.. Daddy?" Vic stuttered beside me and honestly, his expression wasn't the one I had been expecting since he looked like he had just seen a ghost but nevertheless I just nodded. Copland tilted her head to the side and looked at him with curious eyes.
"She's our kid now, Vic," I guess I should've discussed this with him first but I really thought that being him he would've been perfectly accepting of this. Instead he just nodded and moved towards Copeland and took her hand then started walking. I quickly caught up and took hold of Copeland's other hand.
I looked at Vic to see that he was actually smiling down at Copeland. I sighed in relief at that.
"I have my Daddys now!" Copeland said in such a happy tone that it felt like the events that just occurred almost didn't happen. Both her and Vic now looked truly content and that was something that was reflected in my own emotions. Finally, things were looking up.
They couldn't even stay that way for a couple goddamn minutes though.
"When we get home can we plea-" Copeland was cut off by the sound of a heavy movement. All three of us whipped our heads back round to look at the cracks that were swimming through the ground nearing us. We wouldn't be able to outrun them this time.
"Run!" I shouted and picked up Copeland. Vic ran along side us, easily keeping up considering I was carrying someone. We ran at the quickest speed that we could to get away but I was right, it was too fast this time. I didn't understand why the cracks continued to form even though we'd already won.
I was strong, sure, I had stamina, sure, but not right now. I was still extremely injured from everything that had happened and carrying Copeland right now was not a good option for me and nor would it guarantee her safety. The thought of passing her over to Vic was considered but his state was hardly any better than my own.
"Come on, Kellin!" Vic urged beside me. I tried, I really tried.
My panting was becoming deeper and before I knew it my knees were almost collapsing underneath me. I looked down at Copeland who was already eyeing me. No matter what I was feeling, I had to keep running for her.
I looked behind us to see that the floor we were running on above the clouds had disappeared and only left a metre behind us. The cracks weren't just cracks anymore, they were completely wiping the floor away.
"Daddy," Copeland placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. I looked at her like she was crazy for trying to speak to me at a time like this but I still tried to pay attention to what she had to say, only she didn't say anything. Instead she smiled and hopped out of my grasp.
"My Daddys need to get away. Don't worry about me. I can't burden you anymore. You've already done everything you can for your daughter. You've given me love and a new family," she smiled such a bright, bright smile and then turned on her heels and ran for the edge.
"Wait. What? Copland! Copland, get back here!" I screamed at her and tried to turn around but Vic grabbed my arm and said nothing as he tried to get me to continue running away.
"No, Vic! Copeland! Come here! Copeland!" I screamed so much louder but then it happened. She smiled one last time at us and then jumped over the side.
All I could do was stop and stare. She was gone. Vic dragged me the rest of the way.
I didn't know what to think or feel. I couldn't process what just happened. Any of it.
"Vic? Angels come back, right? She'll come back like Gabe did, right?" I asked. We had stopped and so had the floor. It decided that now it had had enough of destroying. Vic shook his head.
"Angels do come back but.. That one's not going to," he said and looked away. I didn't understand.
"What? Why?"
He took a step closer and tried to rest his hand on the side of my arm but I took a step back. He sighed, "She was content. She.. There was nothing left for her to live for even as an Angel. It's rare for this to happen but.. since she was so content with just having us, she didn't need to stay. Her soul is going to become a star, Kellin."
I looked at him like he was insane, "No. She has to stay with us, she can't ju-"
"She's gone, Kellin!" he shouted at me. Vic Fuentes losing his temper with me was something I thought would never happen.
"Vic.. I..," I was at a loss for words here now.
"Listen, Kellin," he sighed, "I'm sorry but do you remember when we met for the first time? When we met on Earth?" I nodded and then he continued, "There was that girl who asked us if we could find her sister? That girl was called Leslie, remember?"
I had no idea where he was going with this, "I do also remember you looking like you'd seen a ghost when you saw her and you gave the same.. you gave the same look to Copeland."
He nodded this time, "Because it was like I had seen a ghost. Copland was Leslie's little sister. I think that Copeland died that day."
This time, I really, really was at a loss for words.
"I knew them because of Mike. Mike played drums and so he gave lessons to Leslie and our families actually became quite close. I suppose Leslie didn't recognise me because I'm dead."
We just stood in a silence that I wasn't quite sure how to break. All I know is that if I had a heart then that would have done just fine at breaking.
~~~
Sorry for typos. It's late so I'll check tomorrow. THANKS.