Carly
XXXI
The last thing I remember is a loud cracking and intense pain. Then there was only black. But, in that state of unconsciousness, dreams came. I’m not sure how they got there, in my head, but they were scary!
Most of it was torture. Being pricked to death with large syringes (I have a phobia of syringes.). Being eaten alive by piranhas (Part of my brain knew piranhas didn’t eat meat, but the other part didn’t care. Plus, I’m scared of piranhas!).
And worse, watching Jake die in my arms. I loved him.
I know, I know, love is a strong word and all, but how else do you describe what I feel for him?
I also knew that the Shadow breathed in fear. And the part of my brain being targeted was my amygdala. But that knowledge didn’t make my dreams any less scarier.
I awoke to a loud inhalation. I opened my eyes. They were sticky with tears. Jake lay a few feet away. I could tell by the blond hair. But that’s all I could see in this darkness.
“Jake.” I say, weakly.
He turns. “Carly!” He creates a force field under me and lifts me off my feet. Literally. He brings the force field towards himself. He kisses my forehead and hugs me hard. I hear a slight groan of pain from my rib, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was what was right in front of me.
We turn weakly, leaning against the wall, and watch the fight play out. We were too weak to do otherwise.
It looked like our side was winning. I cheered weakly. It came out like a whisper.
Darryl was pushing forward on the offense, while Harrison was protecting him with walls of fire. More and more tentacles dissolved into nothingness.
I cheered-whispered again.
The Dark One was slowly being pushed backwards. He looked frightened. He let loose another burst of dark energy. Harrison’s wall of fire protected Darryl from serious harm, but a smidge of it struck him in the chest. Luckily, he was fine, but the slight pause gave The Dark One an advantage. He pressed forward with another barrage of darkness.
Darryl got hit with more and more pellets of darkness. Harrison wielded a suit of fire around the back of him. He left the front side clear so he could breath and wouldn’t suffocate. But The Dark One was smart and strategic.
He ran at a wall.
But instead of falling, he disappeared. We all looked around. But he wasn’t there.
Suddenly, something dark appeared behind Darryl.
“WATCH OUT!” yelled Jake. Darryl turned in time to see The Dark One standing behind him. Luckily, Harrison raised a wall of fire in front of Darryl. Is blocked the blow, but the smoke inhalation was too much for Darryl. He collapsed.
“JAKE!” shouted Harrison. Jake nodded and raised his arms. Like he did for me, Jake carried Darryl towards our little ‘Hurt Friends’ pile.
I propped him up against the wall. Unfortunately, my knowledge of smoke inhalation was poor. I was lost.
So, I left him there. All I knew was that he needed clean air. But there wasn’t any around.
By now Harrison had switched to offense. And The Dark One to defense. As balls of fire were thrown at The Dark One, he raised a shield of darkness. Sometimes the balls of fire were consumed by the darkness, but other times the fire dissolved the wall. Then, one of the fireballs became huge and blue. The large fireball hit the wall, and the wall was destroyed, pellets of it flying in every direction.
Jake raised a force field around everyone but The Dark One. He was destroyed by his own darkness. We cheered for Harrison. He smiled weakly, then collapsed. I limped over.
But Jake stopped me, “He’s fine. Still breathing, just tired.” he assured me.
Sure enough, Harrison was fine. But The Dark One wasn’t. I wrapped him up in an icy rope. Then, Jake secured him in a force field. The force field would have to be reestablished, but for now it was fine.
I heard coughing behind me and turned around. Darryl was slowly getting up. His first step was a bit wobbly, but after that it got better.
“Did we win?” he asked, weakly.
“Yeah,” I tell him, “Yeah, we did,”
“I’m a superhero,” I heard Harrison mutter. At first I thought he was awake, but he turned out to be sleep-talking. We laughed. It hurt my ribs when I laughed, but I suffered through it.
“Let’s get them up in the sun.” Jake suggests. “Hopefully, since he’s in power mode, his powers will be destroyed by the eternal light of the sun!”
It sounded like poetry.
“Good point,” Darryl said, thoughtfully. Jake looked overwhelmed with pride.
He proudly creates force fields to carry Harrison and The Dark One. I make little iceboats for the families lying unconscious, and a small cane for me.
We lift them up in to the bright sun. It takes a while, because of our cracked ribs and arms. People are gone. Enjoying the start of summer. The door was locked, but Darryl’s robot destroyed it.
We walked outside and lay everyone out in the sun. Then The Dark One started changing.
First his eyes opened, and shone brightly, a beacon of light, then they turned golden again, then his hair went back to it’s normal color, then his clothes changed. Finally his tentacles disappeared, to be replaced by skinny arms and legs. He was changed. He was Bobby again.
Jake walked over to him and looked him in the eye. “No trace of green or black.” he announces, happily.
We high-five each other. Then we waited.
At some point, I don’t know when, Bobby disappeared. We never knew what happened to him, nor will we ever know.
Harrison awoke first. “Hey guys.” he said, before falling back to sleep. A while later he awoke again. And this time he stayed awake. We talked for a bit. But it was no use. We couldn’t rid ourselves of the worry we had for our loved ones. They were still snoring.
Darryl was tinkering with his robot again. I was going to reprimand him, this was not the time for robots, I was going to say. then I reconsidered. Who knows when you’re working with the smartest genius in history?
Soon, they start to wake. The little kid first, and then Tessa, and then Jane, and so on. The oldest person, Jake’s dad, awoke last.
When they were all awake, Darryl pointed his little robot at them. A bright beam of blue light hit them, and they fell back to the ground.
“What did you do?” asked Harrison, furiously.
“I erased their memory of the past few hours. Up to the point we left. I targeted the hippocampus, thalamus-” Darryl went on for a while, listing all the parts of the brain that dealt with memory. When he finished we all nodded, pretending we understood everything he said.
We didn’t have the foggiest clue what he was rambling about.
A
Few
Days
Later
…
Darryl
XXXII