Skylla, true to her word, brought me out of the room. But only to the entryway, where we could still look in. I was torn between wanting to know what was about to happen and not wanting to watch, because the image of blood and corpses wouldn't leave me. There still seemed like there were so many people, but I was starting to recognize them now. Faces from the upper room of Alpha, Jun and Tallie, even some of the people from the bus were here. And of course there were my friends, looking horribly outnumbered even though I knew some of these people were on their side.
It sounded like thunder. A few people screamed, scattering to hide or at least get away from the centre of the room. Instead of a cloud it was a sickly green, the colour of Kayin's smoke. Which meant it had to be Kayin. I got out of the way as people poured past, those who knew exactly what was going on but not wanting to be part of it. It seemed wrong that Kayin would be first to strike, but of course he would want to minimize the casualties. These people- or, really, non-humans, moved quickly enough that the doorway was clear in minutes. I peeked around the corner, convinced I needed to at least watch what was about to happen. The fighting had already started, blurs of colour and flashes of metal everywhere. I couldn't help but cringe, and my whole body tensed up.
There was blood, blood everywhere. It ran over the floors and I was terrified it would reach me, that I'd be stained in it so that I was never clean. I must have been shaking, because Skylla grasped my shoulders firmly again.
"I need you to tell Brie something," she said, her voice surprisingly hoarse. I wanted to tell her that wasn't possible right now, that she'd just have to wait and tell her herself. But I didn't. "I want to tell her I'm sorry that I never got to sail her around the world. That when I saw her turn we all wanted to take her away, wanted to put her on a ship and let her be free. She needs to know that, okay?" I nodded, but I was frowning too. I had no idea why it was my job, why she was even telling me this.
She stood up and ripped the train off her dress, the whole thing landing in a heap on the floor. I frowned until I realized that her dress really ended in shorts, and now it looked more like a catsuit than a party dress. I backed up, shaking my head. I knew now, what she was going to do. And it hated myself for not being able to stop someone who I'd just started to trust, just started to know. There was so much potential with her, so much I could know. But she held her head high in a sense of finality, like she'd accepted whatever was about to happen.
She strode into the middle of the battlefield, ducking and swerving around attacks. And then she opened her mouth and sang, the melody floating through the room and stopping her enemies. I closed my eyes and let out a silent scream, knowing what came next.
Kayin was fighting Tallie. It was horrible to watch, her all teeth and claws and him countering everything with that green mist. It almost seemed acidic, like every time it touched her it burned her skin. She flinched every time, so I could only assume. But when Skylla sang it slowed her down, like she was distracted or just unable to move. The notes were impossibly high, so the melody cut through any sound the fighting was making. And that's when the smoke engulfed Tallie, overtook her very being. It was gone for a second and then she screamed it out, head thrown backwards before she collapsed onto the floor. Before she died, lying as a corpse on the ground.
It was happening everywhere, but that was the only point when I knew both parties fighting. Brie's dress didn't come anywhere close to slowing her down, and it had actually ripped up both sides. Or, more likely, she'd ripped it herself. The scythe was straightened and flashing through people like water. Everything was spins in her fighting style, graceful lines and smooth motions. She spun the scythe like a baton, raising its spinning form above her head like she was going to use it to fly away and cutting down everyone that got close. The worst part was they bled, somehow the scythe's cuts made people bleed now. It was happening, the bodies were piling up and the blood just kept coming and coming.
Near her Rina was doing the same, using the slowed pace of her enemies to destroy them. Someone rushed at her and she blocked their blows, never parrying but instead going straight for the chest and neck. Brutally, ruthlessly. Like she was no longer the sweet girl I'd come to know. For all I knew the blood staining her dress didn't even bother her. Scythes weren't supposed to make their victims bleed but somehow this must have been different, unjust. She moved more choppily than Brie, yelling and thrusting in a way that was somehow more terrifying.
It happened so quickly I almost missed it, but the dark form of someone running at top speed caught my eyes. Skylla saw it too but she just kept singing, closed her eyes as the man got closer. Jun. He was hatred in motion, glaring down the woman who had caused his mate's death. I didn't want it to happen but somehow I knew Jun had no other choice, that he'd never be whole without Tallie. It didn't stop me from praying for Skylla to open her eyes, to fight like I knew she could.
The song changed in the last few notes, turning somehow more powerful than hypnotic. Like a declaration, that she was going to die for a reason and that her sacrifice meant something. She opened her eyes then and they were glowing ultraviolet, as a cruel smirk twisted her lips. When Jun reached out to her, half-wolf and teeth bared, he went for the neck. She fell to the ground as he tackled her, and my mouth dropped in horror as he ripped out her neck. But ass soon as her blood began to flow onto the floor, so did his.
And ugly red gash appeared at his throat, Skylla's last act. I could hear him whimper from across the room, dab and scratch at it like it could go away. But he was gasping for breath soon, lying just as dead as his victim. Except she was smiling at his look of terror, her last act taking her killer down with her. The siren claiming her last victim, luring him to his death with her song. The deaths knocked me speechless. I felt like I literally couldn't breathe, like Skylla had taken my breath with her. But I kept watching, because deaths that meant so much to me were just deaths in the heat of battle. They would be mourned later, but for now the only thing that mattered in that room was survival.
I was drawn to watching Rina again, her movement precise and measured. But this time her opponent was awake, and wearing a white suit. I was gripped by a kind of fear I hadn't really known before, the true fear for another's life. She was holding her own well, from the looks of it. She had a scythe and he had a rapier, which seemed wrong for a demon. But I could see the white smoke rising off it like dry ice, and I knew it was deadlier than any sword. Rina's face was blank, impassive, the emotionlessness I had always expected from reapers. Even though I knew the otherS were fighting they didn't seem to matter in the face of this fight, these two who were locked in a sick dance.
He jabbed at her side and caught her dress, and caught my breath with it. It was stuck there, and the sick grin he gave her made me actually move to go to her. I could distract him, do something, because I'd known that dress was a bad idea. But before I could move her own face changed into a smirk to match his own, and the dress went stiff. Her next movement shattered it like ice, and he was so taken aback he actually stumbled backwards. I remembered them talking about being able to fight in dresses, and realized Rina knew all along the image she gave off.
She'd known people would assume her weak, childish. That there was no way anyone could fight in that dress. And so she'd played on that. She was now standing in something completely different, looking like someone else. Thick shorts that almost looked like armour, that would have fit easily under the large skirt. Red and black instead of pink and white. She looked like a samurai, like a warrior that wouldn't be stopped. And that's exactly what she became. I understood how she fought then, that maybe she hadn't really been some innocent Japanese girl. She wielded the scythe like a katana, fighting like she'd never done anything else.
She caught him off guard all right. And she caught him right in the chest. She yelled and stabbed straight through where his heart should be, twisting the blade and pushing it so hard it impaled him. His legs slid across the floor and she held him there, suspended, bleeding black onto his suit. And then she shook him off like some worthless vermin in a trap, letting his body fall. They both knew it was the end, and she stabbed him again. The look of fear in his eyes couldn't be faked. I knew he was dying, that there was no survival. I was too tense to be happy about that, and black blood just kept spurting out and joining the crimson around it. He looked like a macabre painting, black leaking out of his mouth and chest. Finally even his eyes turned black, and hard as it was to tell I was certain his eyes had rolled back.
It was over. The room warmed, a physical reminder of what had happened. There was no relief, no victory. Rina spun around again and kept fighting, kept swinging the scythe like it was an extension of her arm. My eyes were glued to Vincent now, who I'd never seen alone. He looked wrong, with too much black on him. Like the strangeness from the mirror lost its impact on death.
There was a scream like I'd never heard before. Anger, pain, sadness, despair, all in one note that cleared the air better than even Skylla's song had. Lynn stared down at the body of her brother, her dead family, and screeched. I backed away, the noise igniting a primal fear in my chest. When she was finished she turned slowly, and even though the fighting hadn't stopped she was given a wide berth. And her white eyes, filled with the purest form of hatred that ever existed, fell on Rina.