The noise was so loud. It was all consuming. Her brain had shut down, the only thing that mattered was the noise. The agonizing piercing within her skull. Every part of her being clashed against the frequency of it, like she couldn't sync with what it was trying to say. It was coursing through her veins and trying to take over.

The blackness was scary, not knowing what was going on outside her own mind. Rene swam through the thick fog of unconsciousness determined to resurface. The effort felt futile until Karo's ominous presence roared through the mist. It was like ripping through a veil only to fall from the sky. She slammed into her waking body, everything about it on fire.

Her friends hovered over her. Cassie's eyes glassy with fear and tears as she held Rene close. Michael was shouting based on how much his mouth flapped open and shut. Plus his face had become flushed as his hair in anger. Her mind fraying apart, she wondered if he'd actually start smoking from his ears like an old fashioned cartoon. Danny was clinging to the phone like it whispered the meaning of life in his ear. All the while Declan was attempting to give her a check up, shining a light in her eyes and feeling her forehead. She felt an insane giggle ripple through her body and out of her lips out of her control. She was slipping.

A dark presence began scratching at her mind. Something was trying to get in. The subtle intrusion became a clawing rampage in a matter of seconds somehow driving the grating blare into a louder frenzy. Rene screamed, pulling out of Cassie's embrace to roll and convulse on the ground. Foam dripping from her mouth as her saliva bubbled from the choking air.

From deep within the recesses of her mind, she felt them stir. Karo and Kai were coming to defend. 

Save me.

It was a plead of desperation. She had never relied on anyone since her mother betrayed her, but now she needed them. She needed others to come for her. Maybe she wasn't worth saving, but she still desperately hoped for it. She wanted to live, to survive.

The noise and dragons collided within her. She shrieked, pulling parts of her hair out in an unhinged attempt to remove the cause of the pain. It was idiotic of course, but she couldn't think straight enough to deal with it. The noise pulled back, shoved into a retreat by the dragons. Rene sagged in relief, assured of the victory when another force seemed to join the fray and suddenly the enemy returned so much stronger than before that it was staggering. It wasn't as though the noise had been joined by a companion, but almost like it had received a boost of power and support. It was one of those cartoons where the big bad suddenly came back bigger and badder from the edge of defeat. The opposing sides, swirled in chaos and shook through her very soul. She felt cracks forming within her as the overwhelming power fractured her from the inside out. The fight was something intangible as each sought to claim Rene. It was an experience she knew she'd never fully be able to explain. The sheer immensity of the moment and how it pulled her apart with it. She couldn't believe how the invader was standing up to Karo and Kai combined.

"That's enough!" The heated voice burned through her.

Both sides froze at it. Tension and uncertainty wavering through her head.

"Show yourself Kara! I know you're there."

She recognized the voice this time, it was Michael.

A strange laugh echoed through the clearing as the noise ebbed away from her brain, nothing more than a memory. Rene swayed and attempted to stand, the sudden loss almost frightening. This person had attacked and slipped out of her so easily. There had been nothing she could do but fall apart as Kai and Karo tried to keep her together. She fell back down almost immediately, gasping for breath on her knees.

"Why don't you just stay down there little Ink Bearer."

Rene raised her head enough to see a swirl of petals erupt in the center of the field. It was where the voice had come from. The colors blended in a furry shooting straight into the air and then exploding out to reveal a cloaked figure. The petals fell like defeated enemies to the ground, laying their entrails around the skeletons of the flowers' stems still in the dirt. It was the most morbid game of "they love me, they love me not" Rene had ever seen.

Michael's fists were clenched and he shifted to stand in front of the others. He had called her something...Kara...that meant he knew her and worse it appeared Michael was scared of her. He was shaking worse than when Karo would do a barrel role in the air with them. Two arms reached and hoisted her up, she shoulders slung across Cass and Danny to remain standing. She gave them brief grateful looks before focusing on the person who had caused her state.

"Like what you saw in there?" Rene gritted her teeth, spitting out the words with the little venom she could muster in her state.

Her mind had never been a sacred area. It was dark and damp, a dungeon to cage her tattered remains. Yet, it had been hers. One of the few things she could claim and where she could hide. It had been a valuable commodity within the Asylum, having a place to retreat, even if it wasn't exactly the safest. Even after Karo and Kai had arrived, they never sought to overtake her mind the way this girl had. It was unnerving...it was infuriating. It was a reality check of once more the world they lived in, a mad one full of fantasy and darkness. It was a sad story.

"Actually it was rather underwhelming. I was expecting more from the so called legend." Kara's voice was calm and high, one of those voices that could be considered lyrical if not for the complete lack of emotion.

Michael shifted forward before taking two steps back, so much fear conveyed in the retreat. "How did you find us?"

"You're a rather hot topic right now, the little Ink Bearer that could. All I had to do was listen in the right places and follow the bread crumbs."

Rene frowned as the girl dropped her hood revealing blank eyes starring back at them. Her raven hair caught and swirled in the wind, so long it reached it much fall past her waist. She shifted raising an arm making her sleeve fall back to reveal many scars across her skin. So she was like them...broken and battered by life. Rene stared transfixed by the angry red lines when a brilliant red light shot from the girl's palm, straight at them.

A giant wall of flames rose from the ground to surround them, but it did nothing to stop the light. The red imploded right on Michael who was thrown a good ten feet back. He rolled across the ground and didn't get up.

The four were still in shock. Rene no longer heard anything.  The world had become silent holding its breathe. A moment of silence for the soon to be fallen. The quiet before the explosion.

All of them were sent flying into the air. Screams sang out a symphony of pain to echo through the air even after they had all fallen back to the ground. Rene moaned in pain, everything hurt so bad. She couldn't even completely say what had hit them. She tried to look around for her friends, but no one was getting up and her face in the grass it was hard to see.

Dang it. If she wasn't so exhausted she'd let off Karo. Her whole body quaked with the pain, fear, and frustration. They could all die here because she wasn't strong enough.

"Leave them alone!" Flames raced across the field, looking to consume Kara, but she flicked her wrist dissipating them.

What the heck was this girl? It didn't matter...Rene had to help Michael. She struggled, and barely managed to sit up, sweat dripping down her face from the effort. No this couldn't be it. Michael sucked in air and puffed out smoke like a chimney. She stared amazed. It raced for the girl only to be sent into the clouds by a strong unnatural gust of wind. What could they do now?

Another burst, a brilliant red radiance that reminded Rene of the last rays of run,  and Michael was flung straight into a tree. A loud crack could be heard when he connected. He slid down into a heap. She sobbed out his name, her insides crumbling with her hope. They didn't stand a chance against this girl. They had escaped the Asylum just to die here.

Kara smiled, a wicked thing that reeked of enjoyment in the pain. The first real emotion she had shown and it ran Rene cold. Her cloak fluttered behind her as she took deliberate and slow steps toward Michael. Rene began crawling toward him, calling his name and the others hoping for some response. None came though...

She flung her body in the path of Kara and Michael's death, reaching out to wrap her arms around the girl's leg like a whining child. Kara retailed by using her free foot, smashing it into her face. Rene felt her facial bones give way and blood stream in hot currents down her face, but she clung to the foot she had managed to grab. The desperate attempt of a failing body and mind, she wrapped tighter around the leg as though it was her lifeline. The boot pounded repeatedly into her, stomping her with brute force. She had no doubt her assailant could get her off easily, but she seemed to find a sick satisfaction in the savagery. It didn't matter though, Rene wouldn't let her go, not if it meant keeping her there and away from her friends.

"That's it! Try to live, cling to life. It'll make it all the sweeter when I rip you apart right in front of his eyes!" Her dark eyes now glimmered with a fever as she swung her raven head to glare at Michael's form. "Wake up! Wake up to watch her die!"

A shot whizzed by the girl's ear, chopping off bits of her hair to float away in the wind. Declan stood with the help of a tree, panting in pain and blood pouring from a cut in his head. Still he was alive and he was fighting. Kara kicked Rene in the stomach, finally extracting her and shoving her away. Her attention was now fully on Declan. He fired again, tearing through cloth and flesh to exit out the other side of the girl's arm. She barely seemed to notice instead staring at him until he crumbled as though her gaze was painful. He screamed and dropped the gun, only to latch onto his head. She was tearing him apart from within like she had with Rene, only he didn't have a defense of dragons.

Danny popped up from the waving sea of grass near Declan and stumbled over to grab the gun. He must have been crawling over to help. He shot off a volley of bullets, his aim not very good given his sorry state. He wasn't made for combat, to fight through the pain like Declan. They ripped through the air, but all missed their target until he was empty. Danny continued pulling the trigger, his face stained with tears until he flung the gun at Kara's face. She batted it away nothing more than an inconvenience. Her wrath now looking to force him into submission. He stood tall though, protecting Declan even though his body could do nothing to stop the inner turmoil being given.

"AHHHHH!" A war cry pierced through the field as Cass tackled Kara.

On top of her, Cass began scratching with her nails and drawing blood. However, the shock caused by the little teal-furry's surprise attack worn off fast. Her body bounced like a skipping rock across the ground.

How could they be losing so bad? It was five against one. They should be able to beat her. Rene wracked her fading brain. She had been pummeled so bad by Kara she was surprised she hadn't passed out yet. They needed a plan...no that wasn't right. Her mind flashed through the attacks. They didn't need a plan because first, they needed to know the rules of the game. Kara had simply redirected or stopped Michael's attacks, but when Declan and Cassie had attacked she had taken the hits.

It's all a game...

The pieces fell on the board. Hers against the enemy. It may seem impossible but there was always a way to win the game. Her brain flipped some switch, going into her player mode. She stood up, her right arm dangled uselessly and her face was a mangled mess, but nothing registered. She needed to play...she needed to win.

She flung her body at Kara, but the other girl was expecting it this time and dodged to the side. Rene stumbled, her body trying to keep up. Rene threw a left hook, that her opponent grabbed and used her own momentum to flip her onto the ground. From her lower angle, she grabbed the edge of the raven head's cloak and pulled down, choking her. She coughed, frantically attempting to undo it when Rene rolled and forced her to the ground.

The two girls wrestled with each other on the ground. She felt her scratching at her mind again, but Kai and Karo were ready. The noise never managed to knock through. Whatever added strength it had before didn't return.

It was dirty and chaotic. The fight was nothing like she had imaged based on the games she played and previous fights she'd been in. It wasn't like fighting Kristy where despite the insanity fueled brawl, there had been an element of humanity in it.  There were no rules here. It was just raw animalistic tearing and beating each other. Guys had tended to get excited when two girls fought at the Asylum. The "cat fights" drew attention fueled by some fantasy of the sterotype. She had seen the occasional person...well, enjoying themselves too much because of it. This wasn't a cat fight. She was sure if anyone else saw it they'd back away in horror. This was a fight between monsters and demented ones at that.

Kara managed to scramble up and she planted her boot firmly on Rene's chest, pinning her down. She bucked beneath it, trying to get back up but whatever little strength she had left. The fight had waned her strength and her mind began to once more process the sheer agony she was in. Her whole body screamed with it.

"Beg me." Kara hissed, leaning down to let her hair tickle Rene's face and streak her blood like a weird paint brush. "Beg me for your pathetic life. I want him to hear your pain."

Rene turned to where Michael was still against the tree. So this was all about him? What was Kara some enraged ex-girlfriend? No, it couldn't be so simple. People were wrong when they say Hell may hath no furry like a woman scorned. People have their hearts broken all the time. There will always be cheating and deception in the world as human's can be a fickle creature with their love. So while it may be scary to be on the receiving end of that, there wasn't anything truly dark and terrifying about it, in most cases. The girl before her though had the look of being bathed in the abyss. Her rage was a scalding vengeance seeking destruction for her pain.

What had Michael done to her?

Once more it crossed her mind how little she truly knew about him, how much he kept in the dark by dancing around the question. Nothing more than smoke and mirrors, he was a fire that burned a brilliant and beautiful flame so to distract you from the fact it could consume you. She supposed it didn't matter though...she had throw her lot in with him despite it all. Rene may be a lot of things, including a dark and insane person, but being disloyal was not one of them.

Her bloodied spit landed on Kara, making her pause in the berating of Michael she had continued. Her eyes narrowed, zooming in on Rene with disgust.

"Hey..." A cough sputtered more blood across the black cloth of death hanging above her. "Fuck you."

The words caused an odd reaction. Kara's face went slack. Rene waited for the torture to begin, but it didn't happen.

A small and pained laugh drifted through the air. "Remind you of anyone?"

The black hair swirled into the air, wind appearing from no where to make it look like it was alive. "Don't you dare speak her name! How dare you even think of her! You have no right, not when you're the reason she's dead!"

Michael got slammed into the tree again, his price for speaking. She wondered who they were talking about amidst her pain filled haze. He strained forward though, rolling his head to gaze at her.

"I always thought they were very similar. I mean they look nothing alike. Plus while Rene is more the strong silent type, she was like a bomb in your face so confident and friendly. Still, for all their differences there is that something they both have isn't there?"

He screamed, a inhuman sound laced with agony.

"Stop it! Stop speaking of her! Stop poisoning her memory with your existence!"

Michael rocked, grabbing at his head. It was obviously Kara's favorite way to incite pain and revenge. Rene crawled forward and grabbed her leg again. Eyes of hate and despair flickered to her.

"If you want him, you'll have to kill me first."

She stared her down, determined to met death with her whatever fight she had left. Something shifted in the girl's eyes and Michael's word could practically be heard in the air again.

"Come on, do it!"

The wind picked up, pulling more petals from the flowers and dancing them along its pull.

"I...I can't."

With that, Rene was left grasping a single red tulip and the girl was gone. Not that it mattered...they were going to all die anyway.

Amidst the skeleton of flowers, a cemetery in its own right, they would die. Because life is not a game...