Family Reunion

[Seer]

moment at hand

<< few things are stronger, more primal than a mother's instinct to protect her child.>>

<< for years, Karen/Carole had struggled to keep her last surviving child safe from the nightmare neither she nor anyone else could have imagined she'd bring into this world.>>

<< some tried to help her, like Alycia. others were innocent collateral damage, like Blaze, Alison, Cameron, Haleigh and now Carly and Ronnie...but the end result was always the same- death.>>

<< Tonight, just as Morgan had broken the chains of "Courtney" and bonded with her friends at Hillcrest, she and her friends frantically protected each other just enough to survive the nightmare that she had been hiding for so long and now Carole, having managed to get them out of harm's way, was determined to stop the nightmare once and for all.>>

<< No more running, no more living in fear of "what if." Now it was time to draw the line and see that this monster never crossed it AGAIN.>>

<< As Courtney shrieked in protest against her mother's plan, Ava, Nicolas and Delilah were getting a harsh lesson about the sacrifice of one for the NEED of many. This whole time Dr. Starr had been protecting them, they saw a side of her they never knew existed. She and Courtney both.>>

Now DO AS I SAY AND LEAVE THIS PLACE!

Don't look back!

<< tears begin to fall from Carole's opal blue eyes as she's basically told them she's laying down her life to stop her own son...PERMANENTLY.>>

I love you...daughter. You've all been very brave tonight. Take care of each other.

<< the choice was made. there was no turning back now.>>

<< but then...>>

<< as Morgan BEAT the steering wheel and exclaimed in grief as she prepared to obey her mother and drive away from Hillcrest, Carole turned away, shuddering with tears of her own.>>

<< as she did so, a gust of wind and a flicker of lightning in the sky heralds MICHAEL, who had managed to "escape" the apartment and found his way toward the front guard house.>>

<< He'd heard everything Carole said and while he was somewhat PISSED at the doctor from evacuating him AND knocking him out, she ALSO healed him. She was trying to protect him and she DID save his life from the clutches of the Shape.>>

<< as he now stood in front of her startled form, he saw the pain and grief in her eyes. he knew she was planning to stop The Shape once and for all, at the cost of her own life.>>

 

[Persephone]

Ava jumped, startled, at the sounds of hands beating on the office door. She immediately thought The Shape, but soon she heard Dr. Starr's voice telling them to let her in. The door was opened and she didn't hesitate, she told them to RUN. Hand in hand with Nicolas, Ava began to sprint down the hallway, her face frozen in panic. They quickly began to climb out the fire escape and book it to Dr. Starr's car....but The Shape was gaining on them quickly.

"HURRY!"

She screamed as she jumped into the back seat of the vehicle. Everyone quickly got into the car and locked the doors....like that would be of some help to them. With her eyes fixated on The Shape, she watched as he inched closer and closer to them with ever step he took. He was nearly to the back window of the car.

"HE'S ALMOST HERE!"

Ava exclaimed, petrified that this would be it. That she was going to die in the back seat of a Lexus by her friends serial killer brother. In such a panic, Ava didn't hear what Dr. Starr was telling Delilah, all she felt was Nicolas' pulling her around into a sitting position, telling her to bury her head into her knees and shut her eyes. Tears streamed down her face, but she did't question it. Tucking her head down by her knees, she shut her eyes tight and them covered them with her hands. She heard Delilah protesting as Karen count down. Delilah had to do it! She just had to! Otherwise they were all dead! Suddenly, Ava heard the sound of glass crashing in on them....The Shape had made it to the car. They were dead...they were all dead. But suddenly, even with her eyes covered and shut, the brightest light Ava has ever seen in her life washed over her. It gave her the feeling over looking into the sun for too long. Her head began to throb and her vision [even though her eyes were closed] was spotted. Delilah had done it! She gave them enough time to drive away and make it down to the main gate.

Tears coated Ava's face, and her eyes were nearly slits from crying so much. They were almost home free! They just needed to get out of the gate, and drive like a bat out of hell until they were hundreds of thousands of miles away from this place! Her panic began to subside a bit--just a bit--watching Dr. Starr override the security code and the gate open. A small laugh of relief escaped Ava's lips....

"Lets go!"

Karen: "Go."

Ava's brows furrowed.

"Dr. Starr?"

Karen: "GO."

"No...Dr. Starr, NO!"

Everyone was protesting. It was a symphony of anguish at the thought of Karen stay behind and fighting The Shape. Tears began to form in her eyes again...Morgan protested even further but Karen yelled, EXCLAIMED with determination that they were to leave and call Dr. Grey once they were safe from Hillcrest. She were to stay behind and fight The Shape alone until the other senior staff returned. Ava shook her head, silently protesting this....She may have just found out who Dr. Starr really was....she may have found her nagging annoying....but this woman didn't deserve to die like this. Morgan didn't deserve to lose her mother. Morgan began to beat the steering wheel and Ava burried her head into Nicolas' chest, crying. They were going to leave her. Ultimately to her death. What kind of superhuman mutants WERE they? But before Morgan started to drive away, Ava heard a sound--the sound of magic--as she looked up to see Michael standing in front of Karen.

"It's Michael! He's alive!"

 

[Rampage]

All of a sudden they were running. Running and running and running. And Mike was not there. He was NOWHERE to be seen. The thought haunted him dully, like an untended ache as they made their way to the car and barely escaped the Shape. But when they got to the gate and Dr. Starr got out the young mutant erupted.

WHERE THE FUCK IS MIKE!

....Nicolas...I wish I could tell you something with certainty...but I can't.

Mom...she wanted him to LEAVE. She tried to get him to leave twice. You know how she is when she gives a command and he's one of the few that could openly defy her and not be bound in mystic chains for it!

Maybe she...cast a spell on him and teleported him away to safety.

He might be pissed, but at least he'd still be ALIVE.

If he's still here...and still alive, there's no way she'd abandon him now like this.

<< Courtney's tone was a mere shadow of what it was earlier when she bellowed at him about leaving them to go stalking after the Shape.>>

can't you MAGICK up view of him or something like you did in the basement??

When she could not, some shit about candles, Nicolas was more than pissed.

YES I'm not just a mutant, I'm a sorceress as well, but I'm NOT my mother! I don't have her level of experience! Don't you think I'd DO IT IN A SECOND If i COULD!?

Mike has stood by my mother through SO MUCH and now TONIGHT! He's helped ALL of us. OF COURSE I care about what's happened to him...

Fine and well, goldilocks, but I ain't leaving this motherfucker unless I know he is OK. And leaving your Mama to get it in the hopes that she can slow THAT until Grey and crew get back?! She was just running now form him!! We can't let this fucker off-campus!

Now DR. Starr is telling them to go, to leave her there. Nicolas is about to object as Ava buries her head into his chest crying, when the lightning flashes, and there is MIKE!! The look on his face is classic fury.

MIKE!! You made it!!

 

[Arsenal]

Goddamn, the pain. The PAIN. Until you have your life squeezed from you like an antelope losing to a lioness you have no idea. Mike's guns were holstered, right at his fingertips to shoot the beast, but with no blood to his brain he could not for the life of himself remember where they were or how to draw them. Just when he looked into his death face -to-face, and cursed himself for not doing more...

...he was at Carole's house, lying in her bed...good as new. He got up slowly, wondering if everything had been a bad dream. But NO, the blood on his hands...RONNIE'S blood was just starting to dry.

He washed his hands and face and then he went to the door to get back to the fray. He pulled. NOTHING. He pulled again, enough strength to toss any normal door aside. NOTHING. He rushed the door and was deflected back into the room.

Dammit woman!! What to do? THINK!!!

Then he realized. Carole was smart, very smart. And powerful, VERY powerful. But she was not in security or crime enforcement. He looked at a beautiful and expensive Queen Anne chair in the Living Room by the love seat. It was a fantasy of his to do some pretty interesting things to Carole in this seat and he was thinking of all of then when he picked it up...

...and THREW it through the front window.

As he walked out, he whispered.

Sorry. If we get out of this, I will have you repaired. we still have things to do.

As he emerged onto the street, lawfulness was the furthest thing from his mind. He kicked over a mailbox, taking the support post and smashed in the window of the nearest car, opening it and stepping inside. He tore open the steering column and hotwired it, driving off in less than 60 seconds after stepping inside.

He drove back to his car on-campus and popped the trunk. No need for subtlety. He pulled from the trunk a 12-guage shotgun and picked up some slugs he had made in case anyone around here went crazy and he had to try to deal with it. He also picked up a baton with a million-volt surprise for anyone who messed with it unwarily and began to walk towards the commotion he heard just a street over. He heard the instructions given to the kids and he saw their anguish as Carole essentially opted to end her life to kill the Shape.

He stepped out of the shadows, armed for bear.

"It's Michael! He's alive!"

MIKE!! You made it!!

Sure I did. Now you four get the hell out of here while I help the Good Doctor clean up a mess. You will not go this alone Carole.

He slapped the back of the vehicle hard with his hand.

Now GO!!

Before they could pull off, he grabs Carole and kisses her. In front of everyone. And whispers in her ear.

If you go, I GO. I will not let anyone else die tonight alone. We end this. TOGETHER.

 

[The Shape]

The end

Things were about to end indeed. HE would see to that.

Busting out through the guard house, the physical power announcd the Shape's arrival.

His breathing was heavy and his aggression was palpable as he blindsided Michael and grabbed a stunned KAREN, spinning her around to face the horrified Morgan.

His massive hand now covers Karen's crown, forhead and some of her face. He forcibly holds her head back and from in between his fingers, Morgan and the others can see Karen's wide open, terrified opal blue eyes.

Karen struggles but her mightiest physical effort was less than no match for his unrelenting grip. He had her, at long last and he would NEVER let her go. Not while she LIVED anyway.

Morgan screams. Her turn was coming but first. MOTHER.
Looking down at his mother,

FLASH

The victory house. Halloween night. A young adam stalking up the stairs, in an odd looking clown mask, wielding a large, sharp kitchen knife.

He looks at his sister Blaze.

Not a word. Not a soound.

He raises his the knife high above....

he brings his knife up and then SLAMS it down into the struggling Karen's chest.

The force of the stab cuts through bone like a hot knife through butter. Beyond fracture.

Flesh is torn.

The blood of his MOTHER at long last drenches his knife.

But she hasn't fallen.

She isn't dead.

He will change that very quickly.

 

[Seer]

Bloody reality

<< and at that moment, after all these years, after all the fear and bloodshed, the moment where they thought things might work out, they are robbed of any hope they dared to have.>>

<< The shape moves with the force and power of a pile driver, the speed of spectre and reaches the first part of his ultimate quest as he captures Carole and holds her for them all to see and then STABS her in the chest.>>

<< as fast and terrifying as the knife strike is, for Morgan, Ava, Delilah, Nicolas and Michael who watch with horrified expressions and exclamations, it seems to happen PAINFULLY slow. The knife makes contact, breaks bone, tears flesh and buries itself DEEPLY into Karen's chest. It's as if there's NO END to it until The Shape finally brings the knife BACK OUT>>

<< Morgan's scream...so shrill and anguished it could almost shatter GLASS...is what seems to jar them ALL back from their shocked, transfixed state as The Shape is now MURDERING Carole Starr, Karen Victoria, HIS MOTHER, THEIR headmistress, Michael's lover.>>

<< He wont stop until MORGAN and Karen are BOTH dead>>

 

[Spellbinder]

enough

<< Tonight had started off so wonderfully for all of them but then degenerated into a nightmare, one Morgan had been haunted by for years and now her friends were sharing it with her. Nicolas saved her once this evening, she in turn, protected them all long enough for Michael and her mother to get them away from her murdering monster brother.>>

<< Courtney and Nicolas had been at odds before but they'd come so far from then till now.>>


<< Even as he seemed upset with her for not being able to do what he wanted, she didn't take it personally. She had feared the worse for Michael until her mother confirmed his whereabouts and then HE appeared! He was alive!>>

<< Morgan put her hand on her chest and slowly exhaled with relief as he reaffirmed his vow not to abandon her mother. That kind of courage, loyalty and love! It was....touching.>>

<< but that brief moment when it seemed things could possibly get better EVAPORATED as The Shape explodes into view>>

<< Morgan flinches, gasping with shock as he busts out into the open, knocking Michael down and....attacking her MOTHER.>>

Mom! NO!!!!

<< she scrambles to get out of her seat belt and open the door. and then it happens...>>

<< Morgan's icy violet eyes widen with utter disbelief>>

<< The shape moves with the force and power of a pile driver, the speed of spectre and reaches the first part of his ultimate quest as he captures Carole and holds her for them all to see and then STABS her in the chest.>>

<< as fast and terrifying as the knife strike is, for Morgan, Ava, Delilah, Nicolas and Michael who watch with horrified expressions and exclamations, it seems to happen PAINFULLY slow. The knife makes contact, breaks bone, tears flesh and buries itself DEEPLY into Karen's chest. It's as if there's NO END to it until The Shape finally brings the knife BACK OUT>>

<< she doesnt just SEE it...she FEELS her mother's FEAR and PAIN through their empathic bond as mother and child. She clutches her chest as she doubles over, almost FALLING out of the car as she looks up, now with tears flowing.>>

MOM!!!

NO!

NOOOO!!!


<< her SCREAM is so primal and then...they all hear it...eldritch chimes sounding off in the air. NICOLAS, picks up a psychic flash from Morgan....it's the BLACKEST, most PRIMAL thing he's EVER sensed from her since that time she "dragged him to HELL". its like a TORNADO of fear and rage...of ALL the emotions and feelings associated with this, her BROTHER and all that she'd suffered because of him.>>


NO MORE!!!


<< Morgan SPILLS out of the car, scrambling to her feet and CHARGES for The Shape. She's CRAZY with grief and RAGE as the beatrice medallion around her neck now GLOWS and a DEMONIC aspect begins to flicker and manifest about her form.>>

<< As the Shape prepares to PLUNGE the knife into Karen's chest again, Morgan REACHES them. She GRABS hold of The Shape's hand with both her her hands and MICHAEL, not caring for his own safety makes a BRAVE, MAD move to SNATCH Karen from the Shape's grasp before she can be stabbed again.>>

<< If the Shape was ever given pause, it was NOW as his baby sister ATTACKED him so directly and ferociously! Morgan's physical strength is NO match for that of her brother's...but that doesnt matter to her. Not anymore. Not for where THEY'RE going.>>

WONT LET YOU...HURT ANY ONE...EVER AGAIN!
<< she screams as thunder CRASHES and a MASSIVE stepping disc opens, taking her, the shape, Ava, Delilah, Nicolas, Michael, Karen AND the truck from Hillcrest, from EARTH...to LIMBO.>>

<< HER special place.>>

<< the place she'd taken Nicolas to that nobody believed when he told them.>>

<< HELL.>>

 

[Arsenal]

Crash...to the right. Roll with it. TOO LATE!!!

Karen is up in the air in the Shape's hand and before Mike can recover, the sickening thud of a knife ripping bone is heard.


NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

As he grieves for a moment he hears Morgan and is shaken back to action.

MOM!!!

NO!

NOOOO!!!


<< her SCREAM is so primal and then...they all hear it...eldritch chimes sounding off in the air. NICOLAS, picks up a psychic flash from Morgan....it's the BLACKEST, most PRIMAL thing he's EVER sensed from her since that time she "dragged him to HELL". its like a TORNADO of fear and rage...of ALL the emotions and feelings associated with this, her BROTHER and all that she'd suffered because of him.>>


NO MORE!!!

AS Mike gets up to rush at the monstrosity a figure beats him there...MORGAN!!! He grabs Karen from the Shape as all of them fall into a HOLE and end up...where the FUCK are they?!

 

[Persephone]

The moment of levity at seeing Michael was short lived when The Shape burst out of the guard house. Screaming, Ava backed all the way into the passanger side door, furtherest away from The Shape. But she saw everything that happened next. He STABBED Dr. Starr in the chest! Tears freely fell from her eyes as a muffled "NO" escaped her covered mouth. Morgan began to scream, charging out of the car after The Shape.

"MORGAN!"

But just as she yelled, everything went wild around her....like the first time she tripped off of shrooms. The world became dark, but swirly with colors. It lasted only a second, but it definitely screwed with her head a bit. Blinking her teary eyes a few times, what she saw was something out of a horror movie. It was like....HELL. Gasping in, was THIS what Nicolas had told her about?

"Oh my God....what....where ARE we?!"

 

[Rampage]

Mike was alive and well!!! And fucking TOUGH!

He ordered him away while he was going to stay with Dr. S. It was a shitty plan but Nic knew that the teacher could get back FAST and even the Shape had no shot with them, not head on. He KNEW he could contact Ms. Grey EASY as big as her mind is and he was about to calm enough to try when...

LOOK OUT!!

Too late, Mike was smacked away and Dr. Starr was stabbed deep as hell. Not a deadly shot YET by his reckoning, but damned close. Nicolas emerged form the car to try to do SOMETHING, anything when He FELT Courtney's psychic ROAR, felt her change and then...

...they fell all the way to HELL!!

"Oh my God....what....where ARE we?!"

Nicolas took the advantage that Courtney gained from leaping at her brother and gave her a TK push, enough to stagger even the Shape and buy her enough time to assert herself.

We are in HELL, baby. Or at least the version that Courtney rules in those pretty little disks of hers. Get out of the car and give her some room, help me get Dr. Starr out of the way. I have something to give her.

Nicolas produced one of the healing bottles from Carole's office marked like the one used on him. He was brave, but not completely stupid. He had borrowed one from when he had been healed, just in case. Now he hoped it would help the Doc enough so she could do to herself the hocus-pocus she did on HIM. Nicolas 'moved' Dr. Starr and Mike back towards them, tried to put TK pressure on Dr. Starr's wound to slow the bleeding and handed Ava the bottle while preparing to back Courtney up...though he increasingly doubted she'd need it, even against the Shape.

 

[MorningStar]

Reaching the front gate, Dr. Starr stopped the truck. Delilah almost shouted, “Just drive through it!” but she supposed wrecking the car wouldn’t help them get the hell out of there.

They waited in the car for Carole to open the gate. Nicolas was worried about Mike, but he was pointing his frustration a little too directly at Courtney.

YES I'm not just a mutant, I'm a sorceress as well, but I'm NOT my mother! I don't have her level of experience! Don't you think I'd DO IT IN A SECOND If i COULD!? Mike has stood by my mother through SO MUCH and now TONIGHT! He's helped ALL of us. OF COURSE I care about what's happened to him...

“We know you do hunny, we ALL do – leave her alone, Nicolas.”

Dr. Starr returned to the car – but she didn’t get in.

“Dr. Starr, come on! We have to get out of here!”

But she wasn’t coming with them. Delilah silently watched the scene unfold between mother and daughter, tears coming to her eyes.

As they prepared to go, they saw something.

"It's Michael! He's alive!"

“Oh, thank god…now we can ALL get the hell out of here – together!”

But that was not to be…as The Shape, the unstoppable force of evil, took Carole and stabbed her!

Delilah screamed.

Courtney got out of the car and rushed her brother.

Delilah was out of the car a second after her.

“Courtney! STOP!”

But it was too late.

And then they were falling, that not unfamiliar but certainly not comfortable feeling of traveling via stepping disc. Delilah didn’t have a chance to think about where they were going because they were suddenly THERE. And it was like no place she had ever SEEN.

An THE SHAPE was still with them.

 

[Seer]

Journey to hell

<< Earth, Hillcrest suddenly give way to the Otherplace, HELL.>>

<< the windy, icy, eldritch dimension that was the point of origin for the stepping discs that Courtney/Morgan's mutant power allowed her to control. This was also the the place that gave her a link to arcane magick, some of the blackest magick known to anyone who'd seen it on Earth.>>

<< Of the four of her friends, only Nicolas had seen this place directly before and HE thought he was either having a nightmare or going insane at first. Courtney pulled him through a disc and brought him here to scare the hell out of him [pun intended] as payback for a humiliating joke he played on her a week earlier.>>

<< Things had changed between them quite a bit since then, though no one quite believed him whenever he told them the story. NOW they were all here & saw this place, saw the part of her that would make ANYONE shrink back with fear.>>

<< at the moment Morgan attacked the Shape, Nicolas gave her a telekinetic push to aid her in taking him down. It was not something she had anticipated and so while she DID succeed in bowling him over, they BOTH went tumbling as they fell through the stepping disc.>>

<< all the others fell through, landing on large, HIGH REACHING land mass, near the precipice of it.>>

<< Ava could sense the WILD elemental chaos around her, the winds, the churning violet colored skies that seemed to match Courtney's own eye color, the black lightning bolts that blasted forth followed by the booming thunder claps.>>

<< She, Nicolas, Delilah and Michael, who held a fallen Carole as Nicolas quickly attempted to stablize her, ALL saw what could only be described as DEMONS, winged creatures of various sizes soaring & swooping about in the endless sky above. a mist drifted along , encompassing the land mass & making it impossible to see where, IF there was any ground far below.>>

<< this place was beyond anything they'd seen before, and it was tied to Courtney.>>

<< Courtney and the Shape had fallen, tumbled down near by with Courtney's screams of anger & defiance being carried by the winds around them.>>

 

[The Shape]

Somewhere else

Courtney's pure physical attack was emotional, uncoordinated. A last ditch effort to save their mother from her fate.

It would be nothing for him to wrench loose from her and RUN HER THROUGH with the same knife he'd just stabbed their mother with.

But the force her of her collision with him was some how much more powerfull than it should have been.

The Shape found himself actually losing his footing!

But then all sense of space and orientation left even him as he fell through something...a opening beneath him!

The clouds whisked around him until nothing but the unnerving glow of his red eyes were visible, until they too, were masked by the storm clouds rolling in around him.

Cringing, he pulled the knife to his chest, nearly dropping it as the lightning bolts ran through the metal and intensified the conductivity of the electrical currents. Although he tightened his grip around it instead, intending to swing mightly and DECAPITATE Morgan in mid air, and SLAM the blade into Karen's HEART.

His sister's screams of protest were lost on him. Nothing would stop him from achieving his goal!


Still, Where ever he was, the lightning strikes did deliver tremendous pain but pain was nothing new to him. He soon felt ANOTHER force moving against him. Winds. The wildest kind.

Withouht the ground to use as a steadying point, the Shape was BLOWN away from his mother and sister and soon attacked by winged DEMONS! These creatures beat, clawed and struck at him far worse than any bird of prey.

Raising a hand and swatting around his face, as if attacked by a swarm of flies or mosquito’s, the shape attempted to wave away the creatures as they viciously tore into him, & then came one TREMENDOUS blast of lightning, shocking his body and electrocuting muscles.

He free fell, seemingly stunned, to the land mass where the others had fallen, hitting the ground with a thud and bouncing before being SLAMMED by a falling boulder that had been loosened by a lightning strike.

He was now pinned against against the fallen trunk of massive, gnarled tree and the boulder.

His body spasmed from the bone crushing impact that would have KILLED anyone else before going limp and just laying/hanging there. Eeriely still. Not moving.

 

[Seer]

end of the line

<< Carole was barely conscious & in shock. Michael carefully laid her down, keeping close watch as Nicolas displayed his resourcefull nature and intellect, using his telekinetic power to hold Carole's wound close as best he could while applying pressure to stop the bleeding. Though he was not accustomed to such finely applied use of his power, he was able to do so long enough for one of Carole's own magickal elixirs to take effect. Ava carefully pours some into Carole's mouth while Michael holds her head up just enough, making sure she swallows.>>

<< By now, ALL of them had managed to gather together in a protective group around Dr. Starr, with Ava and Delilah standing together, ready to defend their spot from the Shape's next likely attack.>>

<< they were all scared, HARRIED at this point but what else could they do? They'd already been through more than anything they could have expected, been trained for at this point.>>

<< still, they continued to protect each other as best they could, which was how they managed to stay alive so far this evening.>>

<< as their vision adjusts to the wild world they're now in, they catch sight of The Shape being attacked by fearsome demons before he plummets to the ground nearby with a sickening thud. Then as his body bounces up against the fallen trunk of a massive, gnarled tree, a boulder, struck free from a nearby mountain by lightning comes crashing down, rolling down the slop toward them before slamming against The Shape.>>

<< never had the term "between a rock and a hard place" seem to fit so appropriately.>>

<< The Shape spasms before slumping forward, not moving. Was he dead? >>

<< Before anyone dear think, much less breathe an answer to that, ANOTHER question was now answered. WHERE was Courtney/Morgan??>>

 

[Spellbinder]

Take me as I am

<< from the swirling eldrith mist that flowed around them, the violet light of another stepping disc opening vertically can be seen and soon, a figure emerges, a feminine form.>>

<< MORGAN slowly walks forward. Michael, Ava, Delilah and Nicolas behold the WITCH as they've NEVER seen her before.>>

<< as she walks slowly toward them, looking as she does. the beatrice medallion around her neck glows so brightly, matching the glow of the SWORD in her hand.>>


<< she's all at once beautiful and TERRIFYING to behold. She's perhaps as TERRIFYING as her brother, looking as she does.>>

This is MY special place. Here...my magickal powers are STRONGEST. But that magick is BLACKER than any "sin"...and it taints my soul. It makes me as DARK perhaps as my monster brother.

<< she looks upon her friends, Michael and her mother.>>

I'm sorry ....for all of this.

I'm sorry that you have to see me as I TRULY am....that you will see what I am about to DO.

But better for you to reject me....and still LIVE....than to DIE being comfortable with the FACADE that you'd come to know.


<< she doesnt wait for them to respond, even as she takes in their various looks of shock and dismay.>>

<< She shudders with grief...and shame.>>

<< Whatever they are thinking, whatever they may say at this point, it can't, WON'T alter the course of events now.>>

<< Turning away from them, she walks toward her painfully pinned brother.>>

SHAPE!
....

<< She now stands nearly ARM'S LENGTH from him. She calls him by NAME as the winds continue to howl and the thunder now quiets to rumblings in the clouds above.>>

ADAM!

 

[The Shape]

Still determined

Pain was nothing new but this place, everything about it defied everything he'd seen, experience, sensed before.

For a being so rooted in physical power, this was the ultimate upset.

From the attack by the demons to the elemental assault and the hurling to the ground with such impact, he now found himself smashed between a rock and a hard place, LITERALLY.

He cringed, spasmed and then ceased all movement, slumping forward.

No movement.

It was not the first time though.

<<FLASH!>>

<< inside. screams of the girl she was shadowing. up the stairs. She finds the girl struggling for her life, being STRANGLED by a man. A LARGE man wearing a featureless white...MASK!? He's ATTACKING her client. Without wasting time, she takes aim and FIRES. A dead shot to the NECK. He DROPS his victim as he retreats into the bedroom. he should be DEAD! Alycia will make CERTAIN of it. She moves into the doorway and sees him STANDING there.>>

<< without wasting time, Alycia takes aim and FIRES her weapon without hesitation. six shots. two in the chest, two in the heart, one in the arm, one in the shoulder! the man is staggered and topples off the balcony, falling over a dozen feet to the ground below.>>

<< looking VERY intense, Alycia's attention is drawn to the whimpering of the traumatized young girl now crumbled on the floor in the hallway. She turns toward her, looking concerned and sympathetic.>>

<<FLASH>>

<< The Shape comes, steady pace, not stopping and CRASHES through the supposedly unbreakable glass! Morgan screams and buries her head in her mother's chest as Karen stands, holding, CLUTCHING her daughter close to her in a most protective way as she covers Morgan's head with one of her hands.>>

<< The Shape closes in.>>

Alycia: I don't think so.

<< Alycia brings forth TWO semi automatic weapons. One in each hand.>>

Alycia: It's YOUR TURN to scream, ASSHOLE!

<< and with that, Alycia UNLOADS into the Shape, shooting him without restraint, without hestitation. His body is RIDDLED with bullets and finally, with a muffled, pained, cry, he FALLS backward to the floor with a hard thud....seemingly not moving.>>

<<FLASH!>>

Karen: That's ENOUGH. You're NOT MY SON. you're a BAD SEED. A THING OF EVIL. I should have ABORTED YOU! But I was A MOTHER. I didnt think I was SUPPOSED to feel that way! But NOW? I won't allow you to hurt ANYONE ELSE!

<< The Shape seems transfixed by Karen and then, ALYCIA is TELEPORTED outside by MORGAN, who after gathering herself and finding courage, gestures, and summons a disc to RESCUE Alycia. The Shape is PISSED and starts coming toward Karen.>>

Karen: Adam...It's TIME.

<< pointing at him.>>

Karen: Hellspawn demon creature of DEATH! FIRE shall take your very BREATH!

<< swinging her arm in a clockwise motion, chimes sound off, as Karen ignites a POWERFULL spell of HELLFIRE that EXPLODES out between she and the Shape JUST as he reaches her. the blast of hellfire radiates in a ballistic pattern and the flash can be seen for several miles around.>>

Morgan: MOM!?

<< Karen reappears outside, unharmed. But as she slowly makes her way to her daughter and Alycia, Morgan exclaims.>>

Morgan: OMIGAWD MOM! He's STILL COMING!

<< all three women look with utter HORROR as the SHAPE can be seen, lumbering forward through the hellfire but as it turns out, its only for a few steps before he drops to his knees, then falls down on his face. Not moving again. The spell runs its course and by the time police, sheiffs and emergency crews arrive, the fire is retreating as mysterious as it appeared. Karen, Alycia and Morgan are GONE. And the Shape? presumed DEAD.>>

He got up. Even from that. He will wake up from THIS!

SHAPE!

a voice. familiar but changed. there's a haunting echo about it.

ADAM!

Sister. Not the older one. She was already dead.

The younger one. The baby. The one who'd he'd come for.

He revives.

He looks upon her and immediately the goal he'd set out for returns to the front of his mind or what passes for it.

But he finds he can't move!

He can't reach her!

She stands, just within arm's length! But he can't get her.

Can't MOVE.

There isn't a force that can stop him.

A force...on EARTH.

After a few more moments of struggling, he becomes almost FRANTIC in his desire to be free and reach her. KILL HER but no avail.

Shaking his head, he expresses eeriely silent frustration as he puts his hands to his head.

For the first time, he seems...almost SYMPATHETIC. Like a trapped animal!

 

[Spellbinder]

seeking answers

<< Morgan stands fast, looking at her brother unwaveringly as he revives and tries to get to her only to find he cant.>>

....


<< He expresses silent shock and dismay at his predicament. Morgan does not show any sympathy or concern.>>

ADAM! LOOK AT ME!

I am the one you came for. THIS is not what you were expecting.

You HURT my mother. You KILLED my sister and all of my friends!

You KILLED ALYCIA and scores of innocents! You TERRORIZED the only people that I've been able to call FRIEND since what you did before.

You've killed SCORES of innocents and you ALMOST killed Michael, the only man who my mother has been able to even TRY TO TRUST since you turned her world into a NIGHTMARE and left her forever haunted!

You did all these things...to get to her....to me....

THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!

Why?

<< The Shape simply stares at her.>>

<< After ALL that's happened?! This is INTOLERABLE to Morgan.>>

<< eldritch chimes sound off in the air.>

WHY!?

ANSWER ME! DAMMIT!

<< she SHRIEKS with rage and anguish!>>

<< but still no answer comes>>

 

[The Shape]

still

<< eldritch chimes sound off in the air.>

WHY!?

ANSWER ME! DAMMIT!

<< she SHRIEKS with rage and anguish!>>

<< FLASH!>>

<<split horizon view of Morgan's beautiful demonic face, her enraged violet eyes and The Shape's seemingly featurless white masked face and cold black eyes with those glowing red irises.>>

He hears his sister.

Her heart beat, her respiration. It's all there. Despite her changed form.

She's RIGHT THERE. If only he could GET HER!

But none of his tremendous physical power can free him now despite his best effort.

As she stands before him, he REACHES OUT for her.

He REACHES with an open hand.

It's as if he's silently begging for supplication.

After all these years, the blood ties that bind still exist.

He wants his sister.

 

[Spellbinder]

<< The Shape still reeling from his predicament does not answer her. He never will. She knows that.>>

<< No magick spell can change that...or him.>>

<< He soon reaches for her. Despite his sudden movement, she does not flinch.>>

<< Her violet eyes widen a bit with uncertainty but as she stares at him, seemingly transfixed, she looks DEEP within his cold, seemingly souless black eyes.>>

<< the silent stand off between the two seems to last an eternity but in truth its only mere minutes.>>

<< Morgan shudders with grief as emotion rises up within her and she sheds tears, for her fallen sister. for her lost friends. for her lost innocence. for Alycia, for the many innocents that died indirectly because of her. for ALL of this. so much loss, so much that didnt make sense. that never WOULD.>>

<< but surprisingly part of what she grieved was for the loss of her family...INCLUDING HIM.>>


<< to the surprise of the others as they watched, she reaches out with her free hand....extending it slowly toward Adam's.>>

<< images of stories her mother told her, photos of Blaze, personal memories of Alison, Haleigh, Cameron, Alycia; the pain of living forever imprisoned by fear, the strain on her and her mother's relationship, the lifeline of friendship offered by Delilah, Ava and Nicolas; her recent memories of them and what they'd come to mean to her, their acceptance of her...all of this and more. Including the fact that her BROTHER had never...EVER seemed to know OR accept the love their mother tried to give him and whatever madness that drove him to do what he'd done.>>

<< tears flow from her violet eyes as her hand draws ever closer to Adam's. The tips of her finger nails JUST touching his own outstretchd trembling hand.>>


<< nothing about him, his actions would make sense. ever.>>

<< all she knew in her mind is that as long as he lived he would forever be a mortal danger to her, her mother, her friends and now michael.>>

<< Morgan shuts her eyes tightly and a soft gasp of grief can be heard from her as she pulls her hand back and slowly turns away...turn her left. The others can see her having a hard time.>>


<< it's not quite clear what she's going to do.>>

....

<< the winds howl just a bit. suddenly...>>

<< Morgan turns, in one motion raising her arms, both hands gripping her soul sword and with a MIGHTLY swing to the right...>>

AHHHHHHH!!!!!


<< With a scream of energy and swift, STRONG action, she DECAPITATES The Shape. ADAM. HER BROTHER.>>

 

[The Shape]

The End

And just like that, it was over.

The Shape's head is cleanly sliced off, seperated from his body by a blade far beyond anything he ever used to kill his victims.

His head falls, rolling away from his body and resting on its side now facing the on lookers.

The predator had just been vanquished by his prey.


The nightmare began with him and now thanks to his sister it died with him.