Beginning of The End

I left the hotel, my arm still shaking as I entered my truck and slammed the door shut. "I'm done here, let Liam take over," I ordered, my palms sweating as they connected to the steering wheel.

The warm humming of the engine broke any attempts at silence as I went back into our mind, preparing for what had just ended, and what was about to begin.

"What are we supposed to do? Until now, we've had a plan! Now what?" Les shouted, moving her hands as she left Liam's inanimate body lying on the floor.

"You think I know? This was our mission, this still is our mission! Don't forget we're here because he needed somebody to rely on!" I yelled back, my hands shaking as my legs threatened to buckle under me.

The reason we ever formed in the first place was from Liam's anguish, his anger at the system. His hatred and sadness from what he lost. The only reason his mind ever split was because of everything weighing on him.

"Volgar! I know that! I know, okay? I hate everything to do with this! What happens to us now? What happens when he succeeds?" She retorted, grabbing my shoulder as tears threatened to leak over the corners of her eyes. 

"Maybe we aren't needed anymore, so what? The mission isn't over, you know that. There's still a trial left, we can rest when we aren't needed," I reminded her, holding her hand as she fell to the floor in sobs.

She had a point though, what would happen to us after this? Would we fade away? Disappear? Become inanimate bodies like Liam's when he wasn't in the chair? Why did we fight so hard, was it really to replace the person he lost? 

Did revenge even matter to Liam as much as it did to me? The questions kept coming, and I couldn't answer any of them. All I could do was glance at Liam's inanimate body, waiting to be put in the chair so he'd have control again.

"Hey Les, if doing this gets rid of us, I want you to know you were an amazing sister. Now let's end this, once and for all," I said, grabbing Liam by the shoulder as I stared into Les's crying eyes.

After everything we'd done to see it through, after all of the pain, the finish line was finally in sight. Who cares if we vanish if it means it all ends? Two lives in exchange for dozens of others was worth it.

"Goodbye, Les," I mumbled to myself as I set Liam down in the chair. 

Immediately, Les and I began to fade into ashes, Liam would remember everything we had done, every memory. It was why I always insisted we kept him near the chair. So that he would remember every detail that we've experienced to help him finish the case.

As we slowly faded and Liam began to be conscious again, I saw a figure forming in the direction our dissolving bodies were going. "What?" I asked, my heart pounding in my chest as the figure came from the shadowy void in an explosion of flames.

Slowly, our ashes formed clearer and clearer. A figure whose body was made of fire. Orange flames flickered brightly on his shoulders, forming a cape and crown as he continued his march.

As he got closer to us, and our ashes built him up more, it took a dark shape around his figure. Creating a tall man, formed of an almost obsidian black aside from the fire that remained behind, dancing with purpose alongside him.

Les stared at him with me, her face in shock as tears flooded down her cheeks. But finally, she let out a smile as the warm, calming flames seeped around us, consuming our bodies and adding to his.

"Take care of him for us, will you?" Les and I asked at the same time, and he silently nodded as a small throne arose from the void and he took a seat. His face was blank and at last, Liam awoke as the last of me faded to nothingness.

***

I opened my eyes and looked around my truck, spotting the familiar hotel not far from me. "It worked then?" I asked aloud, but no response came. "Hello?" I tried again, yet it remained silent. 

Inside me, I could feel a warm feeling flickering in my chest, replacing the fast thumping of my heart against my chest. For whatever reason though, I felt more empty than I ever had before, like parts of me were missing.

"Les? Volgar?" I questioned, but only silent echoes came back. I realized the empty feeling, for once, I felt truly alone. 

As I attempted to get out of my truck, I stopped as a tear fell down my cheek. "Huh?" I questioned, lifting my finger to squish the water droplet, but more came instead. My breathing froze as I opened the door, becoming similar to trying to breathe through a straw.

I fell onto the icy concrete, scratching my elbow while tears flooded down my cheeks as I struggled to regain my composure, but I failed. Hundreds of memories zipped through my mind, of Volgar, of Les, of everything that had happened recently, I could feel all of their thoughts, their emotions.

I curled into a ball as blood leaked from my scraped elbow. I lifted my hand to squeeze my chest hard, twisting my skin into a spiral around my heart, but the tears didn't stop. My skin tightened, highlighting my thick blue veins as the pain gradually coursed through my bloodstream.

All at once, it felt as if my blood cells were exploding, and my head felt as if a grenade had gone off. I could hear cars roaring past the hotel, their engines making my skull vibrate as my brain felt as if it was being thrown like a ragdoll.

Slowly, I opened my mouth as I gritted my teeth together, taking in all the tears that leaked down my face. As another car went by, I let out an ear-piercing scream as the vibrations echoed even louder than before.

My arms and legs shook while I clutched my heart harder, ignoring the cold nipping at my skin and trying to force its way through my body. Through blurry eyes, I looked up and saw the same figure Volgar spotted at the school, the one that tore my seat open. 

It glanced down at me, its lips pressed together as it began to back away and the face of Detective Nala cast a thick looming shadow over me. "H-Help," I managed, lifting my face off the concrete before it fell and my vision went black.

*Two years prior...*

"Hey, Liam? Do you think we'll ever be able to explore more of our universe?" A girl with blonde pigtails asked me, her face serious as I started to laugh, barely feeling the cold chipping away at my hands.

"Like far into space?" I questioned, laughing as I stared at her raised eyebrow. Her bright eyes stared into mine, hers reflecting the dozens of white dots above us.

"No, beyond! Far beyond the stretch of the universe, beyond the countless galaxies," She answered, holding out her hand as snowflakes landed peacefully on her body. With a shift, she lifted her glove and allowed the brilliant flakes to lay against her.

We lay together on a big red blanket, staring at the stars in the sky and the moon shining brightly overhead. I turned to look at her smiling, while her eyes reflected the thousands of bright white lights, the sharp pale outline of the moonlight, and her wide expression as more snow landed on her.

"If that's what you want to do," I answered with a grin, turning to look at her instead of straight at the sky. Unlike her, my long hair always kept me from getting much on me and blocked my eyes from ever reflecting the beauty hers could.

"That's what we should do, be astronauts!" She said with a cheer, confident in her answer while we chatted about the sky and our universe, the potential of aliens.

The night came to an end with us drinking hot chocolate and watching a movie on the television in her living room, but she never stopped smiling. Even after dropping a scoop of ice cream on herself.

A few days later, we were playing outside, enjoying the slight warmth that came with our thick winter coats and gloves. She was smiling widely, unable to contain her excitement at being able to watch a shooting star that night, but that was the last time she ever smiled, the day her cheeriness vanished.

The days ticked by after starting school, and she only got worse. She stopped talking about space, stopped smiling completely, started making excuses not to see me, and started chugging whatever alcohol or drugs she managed to lay her hands on.

Days turned to weeks, and weeks to months, all the while scars appeared on her once tan skin. Deep, white lines built homes in her skin, and no matter how much I begged, she never saw anyone to get help. No matter how often I tried to help, she kept getting worse.

After a few more weeks, we never spoke again, not until her letter. "Hey Liam, I know you tried to help me. You can't blame yourself. I'll miss you, thank you for everything, for letting me be happy for so long. Live, for me, achieve our dream. I hope someday you can find a new happiness -Andrea Grion."

I raced outside as I saw the letter, but it was too late. She hung from her tree, the same one we watched the stars under, her eyes bulging red as tears of blood dripped from the sockets. 

I fell to the ground, tears in my eyes as I started to scream, my cries piercing the heavy winter. With heavy footsteps and shallow breaths, I crawled my way closer, only to scream louder as purple swelling had completely taken over her broken neck.

Police cars came and took her body, while her parents broke down and fell to the floor, tears dotting their cheeks as the rage inside me built.

"ANDREA!" I shouted as loud as I could, her memory clear in my mind as I let the rage take over. I wanted to kill whoever made her do it, I wanted to see them suffer, I wanted to destroy any sense of self that they ever could have had. I wanted to watch them cry in fear as I stabbed them.

That's when his voice first appeared, at first small. Simple words here and there, anger outbursts sometimes too. And then it jumped to orders for me to destroy anyone who got in my way of finding the truth, it jumped to me finding out who had done it, yet they were untouchable.

He told me his name that very same day as blood leaked from my stomach and I stood over the beaten body of the student who assaulted her for days on end, the student I reported but the school did nothing about. The student who got away with everything, and even avoided jail time after that.

As much as I forgot the name of the figure, I could never erase his influence. His name, 'Volgar' became engraved in my mind. Because he was the one who had gotten a form of revenge I never could while playing by the rules.