Fan Fiction ❯ Dark ❯ blood ( Chapter 6 )

"It wasn't my fault," Dark said.

"I know it wasn't," Edinger replied.  "But try to be more careful next time.  You can't keep doing things like this."

Dark said nothing.  The conversation ended.

Rain, listening against the wall, dashed off into her room before Dark could walk out of her father's study and find her standing there.  She heard footsteps outside in the hallway.  Then the door to Dark's room closed.  Rain peeked outside to make sure Dark was gone.  Then she slipped out and into the study.

Her father was at the computer.  He looked up when he heard her enter.

"It really wasn't her fault," Rain said.  "I was there."

"I know," he answered.  "But Dark has an effect with people.  She's an agitator.  She's abrasive."

"Of course she is."  Rain took a breath.  She couldn't keep the iron out of her voice.  "It's because of the way she's treated."

Her father raised an eyebrow.  "The way she's treated?"

"Well," Rain began, "no one at the lab treats her like she's a person.  I mean, not even you sometimes."

He sighed.  "Dark is dangerous, Rain.  I don't like keeping her under control this way, but there's no other way to do it."

Rain crossed her arms.  "I know, I know.  But the monitor is like a leash.  No wonder she gets agitated.  She can't read people like she used to.  It probably feels like a cage."

"There's no other way," he said firmly.

She asked in a soft voice, "So how long before you can trust her with her own powers again?"

"That will depend on her."

"And if the Front comes?"

"In that case, we'll have no other choice but to trust her.  Though at this rate…"

"What?"

He shook his head.  "I don't think I have to ask how she's adjusting to things and people, not with that incident."

"She's trying," Rain said and wondered if it was a lie.

Her father offered a patient, sympathetic look.  "You do realize, don't you, Rain, that you're the closest one to her at this point."

It sent a strange chill through her.  "I hadn't thought of that," she admitted.

"Well, it's the truth.  You have to understand though, Dark isn't normal.  She doesn't relate to people the way we do.  What passes for normal human interaction to us is foreign to her.  She may not understand your kindness.  She often mistakes compassion for weakness.  Remember that.  I don't think she cares whether we all live or die.  She may not be willing to die for us."

Rain opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

"In short," her father continued, "we need you to build a bridge for us.  You have a difficult task.  And I'm sorry it has to be you."

* * *

Rain came home the next day and dropped her umbrella by the door.  Her father had left a message saying that he had to work late.  It was evening already, and Rain hadn't seen Dark since last night.  Dark was still suspended from school.

Rain had cancelled the after school tutoring session to go out with her friends.  For the past month she had been too busy with Dark to see any of them, so it was good to spend time with them again.  But her laughter as she walked with them down the street, or sat with them in the café, felt faked.  There were still two more months left to the storm season.  The Front would rampage for that time, narrowly missing settlements and cities, or hitting them.  It could hit Locos before disappearing for another fifty years.  Dark may or may not be called upon to save them all.  But whether the Front hit or not, she would die anyway.  Insane in two years, dead in four.

In spite of these things, Rain's friends still laughed and did their homework and talked and shopped.  Those life and death concerns were being taken care of for them by other people.  They were all safe and secure in Locos.  Unlike Li and the other settlements, they had Dark, a secret that wasn't really a secret.  Dark was officially known as a Potential only.  The lab never publicly admitted that her powers were real, only that she was under study.  But Rain had a strange feeling she couldn't describe, a feeling that told her Dark was for real.  And in this generation so far, she was the only one.

It had occurred to her (a thought that fell randomly into the bottom of her cup of cappuccino when the conversation lulled) why Dark could never forgive the lab or the city for doing nothing for Li.  Had she been there, Dark could have saved Li.  But it would have killed her and left Locos to fend for itself.  The city officials couldn't allow that.  So Li had to be sacrificed so that Locos might live.

It was that she had been prevented from doing something that was well within her power to do that bothered her the most.  She hadn't been given a choice.

If only there had been enough time to evacuate settlements before they were hit.  If only Dark's brother had been brought to Locos with her.  Rain was running these thoughts through her head while her friends talked about the upcoming school dance.  Something must have showed on her face because they paused to ask her if everything was all right.  She lied and said yes.

After leaving her friends, after a bus ride and a walk alone in the rain, the thoughts resurfaced again.  Now she had nothing to distract her from them.  She went to find Dark.  They could get dinner together or something.

The house was quiet.  Rain stopped at Dark's room and knocked on the door.  She received no answer.  She tried again.  But there was still no answer.

"Dark?"

Maybe she was asleep, Rain thought.  She opened the door.

There was a delay as her mind refused to understand what she was seeing.

Dark stood in the middle of the room.  Blood drenched her left arm, pooling onto the floor.  She held the pocket knife against her skin.  The blade was entrenched in her flesh.  She had cut a hole in her inner arm below the elbow.  She stood completely still, staring at it.

Rain's hand went to cover her mouth.  It was to cover up a scream, a result of sudden panic.

Very slowly, Dark raised her head.  A long moment passed when nothing happened.

"They told me they put it in my arm," Dark said.  Her voice was thick.

It?  Rain took a hesitant step forward.  "No," she breathed with muted disbelief.  She reached out, knowing she should do something, and realized her hand was shaking.  She fought down another wave of panic.  Rain made it to the bed and tore off the sheet.  Her blind intention was to wrap it around the wound, but Dark stood rigid, holding the knife in place.

"H-hey."  Rain couldn't stop her trembling.  She reached for Dark's wet hands with her own.  She tried to pull the hand that held the knife away.  It was like trying to move a statue.  "Dark, please!"  Her voice sounded detached and frantic.

Dark held on.  She dug deeper.  The blood poured.  Beneath Rain's hands, Dark's hands were steadier trembling with effort, not panic.  Rain's body felt cold.  She was nauseated.  Her head felt light.

"Stop!" Rain begged desperately.  "Don't!"  She couldn't control the tone of her voice.

Dark didn't let go of the knife.  Rain pulled harder, her fingers slipping on the blood.  But she just wouldn't let go.

Finally, Dark slumped to her knees.  Rain screamed.  She couldn't help herself.  Dark pulled the knife from her arm and threw it across the room in anger.  Rain flinched.  Still shaking, she knelt down.  She managed to wrap the sheet around the wound.  Red soaked through the white.  She held it tight.

"Dark, hold this.  Please.  Just hold it."

Dark didn't respond.  Rain took Dark's right hand and wrapped it around the makeshift bandage.  Dark allowed this, but didn't say anything.

Call for help, Rain thought.  Call.  Where was her phone?  Out on the kitchen table.  She ran for it, only stopping to glance back once.

Dark was staring at the knife as if it had betrayed her.