The Witch Within Slipped Arc Part Four

 Truth

Loc woke up. She could not move and her body felt like stone. The only thing that she could move were her eyes, which one had become violet, yet even though she knew that they were awake all she could see was nothing but white. She could hear muffled voices around her like she was under water. She may not have heard the word those voices had said she knew instinctively that they were talking about her.

"W-what's h-happened?" She managed to say. "I-I feel different."

She heard a muffled response.

"Sorry,  c-can't hear you." She admitted her voice hurt and she succumbed to the tiredness and she closed her eyes and her head rolled.

"It seems that she had the strength to wake but not stay awake." Ringer said.

"Will she be alright?" Morgan asked as an Old Elder comforted her, she was about to open her mouth.

"She's immortal." Said Loc.

"Miss Cerberus!"

"Loc! You're awake!" Exclaimed Morgan.

"Why is your right eye purple deer?" Asked the Old Elder.

"It is?" She exclaimed, surprised.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Asked Ringer.

She frowned but then it all came back like a flood. Her eyes widened as she put her hand to the forehead as she felt herself grow cold and on the verge of tears.

"They-they killed Pogir." Was all that she could trust herself to say. She did not want to cry here. She did not want to look weaker than she already appeared to be. She not her lip.

Come on Loc! Get a hold of yourself! She thought as the tears started to form. I can't believe it! There was nothing that I could do! Why could I do nothing? Why can I never do anything?

She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was strong and warm.

"Loc, I don't blame you. I also have to tell you that I am sorry beyond words. You may be part of Grasharlo, but you and her are as different as the sun is to the moon, and you are not as evil as she is and I now know why. The hero Reho, lives in you."

She looked at him shocked,  barely wanting to take in what he had just said.

"What?"

"Yes, it was said that the hero lived in one of the three but I had never allowed myself to believe it, yet it was so obvious! But I had to make sure that my theory was true. So I called Elder Avery Middlestone over here to see if it was correct. She performed a test on you and that confirmed that you were the one that had Reho, beyond a doubt." 

"So that's why…" she tailed off as she remembered that voice in her head and her time in Underground Town.

"However the other elders would like for a proper test. Anyway I believe that we have given you a lot to think about. We will leave you." Elder Avery said.

Ringer and Elder Avery turned to leave.

"Miss Mcain, I think that you need to come too. You will have plenty of time with her later." She said.

She looked back and nodded.

"Go, I think I need to sleep on that." She said.

She nodded as she left. She thought about this as she drifted off to sleep. She had strange dreams of her having many adventures in strange places that she knew deep down were not found in this world. She woke up three days later and she had to eat small portions as her stomach, that had not had anything in it for over three days,  had shrunk. She had to build her stomach up and her muscles too. She stayed where she was until she was strong again. She had not realised just how thin that she was until she looked in the mirror. 

She looked at the violet eye and thought that even though it looked good on her, looking at her other red-brown eye. Her hair had grown, but not too much and the white crop was here to stay. She soon came to the day that she could leave the medical ward. Regardless of what happened, she would do all that she could to avenge her parents and Pogir and whoever else that her sisters had killed. She would do all that she could to get her sisters to answer to justice.

She came to a room lit by candles with red and green flames. At the center there was a chair made of diamond. Ringer gestured for her to take her seat. She nodded and took her seat.

"Lorra Cerberus, you are here despite our previous agreement to send you elsewhere because our young leader Elder Ringer believes that you are the one that has the Great Hero Reho dwelling within them. Now do you understand? And do you believe this?" Asked Elder Avery.

"I do, and as for the second question,  I must admit that I can not say, part of me does but there is another side that is sceptical." She replied, suddenly overcome with a great amount of respect for Elder Avery to be anything but brutally honest with her.

Her eyes meet her deep sapphire eyes. She felt like her gaze was cutting deep through her eyes and looking directly into her soul. She wanted to look away as she felt naked but her eyes were locked onto hers. Telling her that she could not look away regardless of how much she wanted to. This gaze was like a knife, cutting deeply into her soul as if it was exposing her true self. Carefully dissecting it and looking at every cell under the microscope that was her eyes.

"Yes,  she does have the Great Hero Reho and that his soul and the emotions of Grasharlo are destined to become one." She said,  letting her go.

Suddenly she was sweating and tired while her brain hurt like an ice cream headache. She was dizzy after that and was panting.

What-what was that? She thought.

That was when an alarm went off. Loc forced herself onto her feet, but as soon as she stood her weak legs gave way and she fell back down on the chair. She tried to get on her feet again but she was back on the chair. So she let herself take a small moment to gather her strength and she soon was on her feet again. She took the first step forward.

She looked up to see that it was too late, she was already looking into the eyes of her sisters. They smirked as they saw the others. One raised her hand up and featured with her finger for her to come close. She took another step forward but then she then fell over and was flat on her chest and stomach. 

"If you run,  I will not hold it against you." Ringer said.

This caused most of the other Elders to leave leaving Robert and Elder Avery blocking the way. They smiled and shrugged.

"It seems that my reputation precedes me. Now move aside." She said.

"No." Said Ringer.

"We do not have to."

"Nor will I!" Said a man that had just left a moment ago just as he came beside them.

"Well I do like a good challenge, however,  I have little business with you." They said. Then their eyes fell to Loc. She tried to get up but she knew that she was far too weak. Elder Avery gestured for her to stay where she was.

"Tell me, do you want to go back to the good old days? Do you want to be together? You could make us go back too to sleep. You could go back to being sisters." They said to her.

She looked at them, her eyes wide. She could not deny that she did want that,  there was not a moment that she had not wanted that. No, she had not a choice but to admit that. They would pull her up on it if she didn't.

"I-Is that possible?" She asked.

"Yes,  in fact there are many ways to do it. Why don't you come with me and find out?" They said. Again, something she wanted. She did want to go with them and get back her sisters. She was also curious,  if there was a way, then she would want to be the one to see it.

She tried to get up. She pushed herself on and let her weight rest on her weak feet. She tried to walk forward only for her feet to barely leave the floor. She walked and kept her eyes on her sisters. She did not realise when she had passed the line.

"Will-will you bring back mother and father too?" She asked to see if they were lying.

"If that is your wish. We are sisters after all and mother and father would have wanted for us to be together. We are both tired of fighting you and we just don't want to have to fight you anymore." They said as they outstretched their arms.

"Then why did you kill them?" She snapped.

They paused for a moment and they soon looked at each other and then back to her. She had tripped them up and they knew it. She looked at them directly in one pair of eyes. Suddenly she felt that her gaze was cutting deep into her eyes and looking directly into her soul. She soon felt like her soul was being stripped naked and dissected at the same time. She tried to look away and as there was a fight going she could not look away to see it. She just could not look away, she felt ice cold and still she could not look away. She was soon covered with sweat as she felt like the hand of death was reaching inside the heart of her soul and pulling it out and looking at it. Her head started to feel like it was frozen. She collapsed in the other sisters' arms with foam coming from her mouth.

Elder Avery looked at her shocked at what she had just seen.

"What? Do you really think you were the only one with that ability Elder Avery Issilla?" They asked as their eyes narrowed and all fell on the ground with foam coming from their mouths.

"S-s-top!" Loc shouted with a shaky voice.

The other looked at her and shrugged. They soon came to her.

"I take it that you know we were lying through our teeth. I guess now you want to know why?" They said as she felt two long and thick spikes dig into her. "We needed you to get close to us after all, as you're becoming one with Reho we no longer have need of you. In fact, all we need is this!"

She felt the long prongs twist get guts and blood threw out of her mouth! She cried out as the pain became unbearable. She felt like it was more than just her body that was being ripped apart. Then the prongs finally came out and she collapsed. She saw that there was a thin glowing silver light joining the tip of the prongs. She knew what that was and knew what they were going to do.

"Now we can truly become Grasharlo once more!" They declared as they let a chuckle of irony. "It seems that what Reho did only served to make me stronger!"

She saw them leave as everything went dark.