Laye
The guard was a kid, about twelve years old. He was tapping on a screen, and didn't even notice us until Serenity cocked her rifle. He looks up and his light blue eyes widen, and pauses his tapping. Serenity lifts the gun, pointing it at his head.
"Serenity?! He's just a kid! You can't possibly shoot a kid!" I say.
"He's an enemy. He'll alert the rest, and we'll all be dead." She says, wrapping her finger around the trigger. I look at the boy as she shoots, and it's like everything is going in slow motion. I look away just after the bullet finds home in the boy's eye. Blood splashed on Serenity's face as she watches the boy collapse. She doesn't seem affected by it at all.
I turn around to see Elle looking petrified at Serenity, and Malachi looks from her, to Serenity, and to me. He had tears in his eyes.
"I've never seen someone murdered in front of me before, I'm sorry." He says, wiping the tears away with the back of his hands.
"You'll get used to it. Every kill is easier." Serenity says, but she didn't sound sympathetic at all. Like all the emotion was sucked out of her. She picks up the boy's tablet, and starts messing with it. "Charlotte's being kept in the west wing tower." She says, looking at the screen.
"If you can see that, can't you disable the cameras and send a message to make the guards stand down from their positions?" Elle asks.
"Uh, nope." She says, tossing the tablet towards her. She catches it, wiping blood off of her hands onto her jeans.
"We've got to get going again," Serenity says as she checks the room for more guards. She shoots three more times, and I cringe knowing that that meant there was.
The castle was surprisingly empty, even as we entered the main floor we didn't have to fight anyone. What's going on?
Suddenly, Elle pushes Serenity to the floor. Putting her knees on Serenity's biceps, she holds her down.
"W-what the heck are you doing?" She asks.
"I should ask the same to you, Serenity. I searched through the files on this kid's tablet, and look what I found. A disable cameras option. And not only that, but I was able to make all of the guards on the cell and main floor to stand down. So why would you tell me that wasn't an option?" She asks.
"Um, I didn't know?"
"You aren't very convincing." Elle says, putting her hand over Serenity's throat.
"Wait, are you serious, Elle?" I ask, and she nods. "Why would you do that, Serenity?" I ask, and she looks at me with a weird expression.
"Because, you morons," She chokes, throwing Elle off of her. Malachi catches her before she could fall. "The most fun part about this mission is the people who get to die." She says, standing up.
"Serenity?" I ask, looking at her. She looks at me in the eyes, which were glowing yellow.
"I guess it's fine, though, since every guard is patrolling around Charlotte, anyway. I can't wait, it'll be a bloodbath!" She says, with genuine excitement. She starts running towards a pair of large doors, which had a sign that read: WW Tower. West wing tower. She's going to kill everyone. She wants to kill everyone.
I reach down to my leg, pulling a dagger slowly out of its sheath strapped to my thigh. I feel my eyes sting with tears as memories pass of Serenity, how she used to be. When I loved her. I hold the knife in my hand, seeing my reflection on the blade. Tears drop onto it, and I flick them off. I draw my arm back, imagining where the blade would insert itself.
Serenity turns around, "Are you coming?" She says, smiling ear to ear. She looks to the dagger, then at me, and frowns, and for a second she was my Serenity again. Then the frown was gone, and her eyes glowed yellow. "You can kill me, Layeanne, but I'll tell you this: If you kill me now, you will kill again. And it will get easier. And with each person you decide to end, it will become easier. And easier, and easier. Eventually, you won't even be able to feel any sympathy or empathy towards your victims, you will be just. Like. Me." She says, and I let the dagger fly, and it hits her with a thump. I cry out, and race over to her. I remove the knife from her shoulder blade, and hold down the wound, blood pools between my fingers.
And it's black. Everything is black and I can't see, other than myself and Serenity. She blinks, looking up at me, with eyes no longer filled with glowing yellow and the need for manslaughter.
"Laye?" She says.
"Serenity? I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean to. I couldn't control myself. I-I,"
"Laye, it's fine." She says, standing up. Suddenly the blackness is replaced with a galaxy, with endless beautiful stars and planets and colors. "I haven't been myself since after I left Charlotte. I think it's the guards' training courses, or maybe it's something else, but you haven't been seeing the actual me. The real me has been gone for awhile now." She explains, her pixie brown hair blowing every which way with the wind.
"Is that why,"
"You haven't fallen in love with me again? I don't know, it's up to you." She says.
I laugh through my tears, "You always interrupted me back home, too. Really got on my nerves."
She chuckles, "Yeah, sorry about that. It's an instinct." She runs a hand through her hair, "Remember the last night we saw each other? Where we sat on the roof and watched the snow fall?" She asks, and I nod. "Well, I wanted to give you something that night, but I was too shy to. But since I'm about to die somewhat dramatically, I might as well do it now." She says.
"What," I was interrupted by her running up to me, bending over slightly to put her mouth on mine. She sits there for a second before pulling away, and she smiles, her eyes watering.
"I've missed you so much, Laye. And now I've got to go and leave again." She says, laughing sadly. She starts coughing, and a trail of blood goes down her mouth and drops off her chin. She looks at me, with tears and blood mixing together.
I hug her as she cries, and I cry, and we both sit there and cry because everything in this world is so messed up. She lets go, wiping my cheeks.
"There's one more thing." She says, and her hands start to fade away, along with her arms, "You're mom,"
But she was gone, and I was sitting on the floor of the castle again.
"Laye!" Elle says. "Where were you?" She asks.
"I think Serenity teleported is to a different dimension." I say, looking down at my bloodstained hands.
"Wha- how can everyone do it but me?" She asks, but then she looks at my face.
"Laye, I'm sorry." She says.
"No, it isn't your fault. Come on. We have to keep moving." I say, standing up. Clenching my fists, I let Malachi open the tall doors to the west wing tower.