Vilmo's Wrath: Deglon Blood (20 page)

“Stay out of this!” Dumont says.

Although he is not there, his voice echoes loudly. Robbie jumps up and races to Lizzy.
Nora, Dumont has done something to this room. I am not at full strength. Whatever he’s done it only effects Szion.
Robbie thinks.

JR sits in a corner holding Lizzy in a pool of blood. Nora’s chest tightens with fear. As she looks for Aria in every corner of the large room, she can feel Robbie grab the twins. Nora feels the fear in JR’s heart, and she feels little Lizzy fading fast. Robbie again connects his power with Nora’s.

“Robbie do not under any circumstance leave their side!” Nora says.

Robbie begins to heal Lizzy while Nora roams around. Touching the walls for a secret entrance in and out of the bright room. Nora looks over to her family and tears trickle down her cheek.

“Mommy. I see you, Mommy,” JR says, holding out his hand.

Nora smiles wanting more than anything to take his hand and hold him.

“I love you, Mommy,”
he says without words.

Nora’s tears flow, not because of what he says, but because of how he was able to say it. Robbie smiles and kisses JR on the head.

Aria appears.

“Mommy loves you too, baby,” Nora says, never taking her eyes from Aria.

Aria glows as brightly as the floor. The light from the ceiling makes her crystal-like form shine, leaving thousands of colors on the white walls.
Nora, be strong. We can do this. Aria is not alone. Dumont controls this battle,
Robbie thinks.

As he finishes his last word another burst of power is sent through Nora’s body. She looks down at Robbie with a questioning stare, who is just as surprised as she is. An amazing blast of energy fills her.

“I help Mommy. I help you like Daddy,” JR says.

Nora smiles faintly, not wanting JR to see the pain she is in. She can no longer feel Lizzy’s heartbeat, but JR’s touch running through her body keeps her standing strong, even though all she wanted to do is break down and hold her daughter. Then she remembers Losrath’s words. ‘Your greatest heartbreak has yet to come.’ Those words have stuck with her ever since that day, and until now Nora never knew this was what he meant.
Is it not enough, we have lost over half of our family. How can I live knowing my Lizzy will not?
She thinks to herself. Blocking Robbie and JR from hearing her heart-breaking thoughts.

“Oh, dear Sister. How does it feel to have someone you cherish ripped from your life? Give up now and I will kill them quickly. You will not win. No. In fact, you will suffer horribly before you die,” Aria says.

Her words hurt way more than Nora thought they would, considering that only feet away, Lizzy barely hangs on to life.
She has taken so much from me and I have yet to do anything about it,
she thinks.

Do something now,
Robbie silently replies.

Nora stretches out her arms and the room shakes. She closes her eyes and embraces her family's power. With her spike in one hand and blue flame in the other, Nora charges at Aria. A sharp pain strikes Nora’s chest as her spike pierces Aria’s heart. Aria’s eyes roll to the back of her head. Nora smiles as she rams the spike in deeper. Nora rips her spike out of Aria and watches her fall to the floor, screaming. Aria’s scream sends fire from her mouth and pain throughout Nora’s body. Nora burns internally as Aria lifts her off the ground. Nora curls into a ball in midair, bracing herself for more pain. She feels Robbie and JR’s power increase as they grow more concerned. Nora screams in agony as Aria hangs on tightly to Nora’s life. Nora slowly fades, but her family fights desperately for her survival. As Aria mentally clings to Nora’s life, bolts of her dying energy strike Nora repeatedly in the face and chest. The pain gets worse by the second, and all Nora can think about is her daughter. She can feel her. Before now Nora was convinced that Lizzy was already dead.
She’s alive. I feel her heart beat. This is it, I did it. Aria will be dead and my family can live a happy life.
Nora thinks to herself.

“I love you all. Take care of each other,” Nora says to her family, who stares at her in horror.

Nora’s words to her family takes the last of her strength. Then, something hits her chest, but she feels nothing as she falls to the floor. Nora didn’t even feel the pain when she crashes onto the floor, but she hears the crack of the glass beneath her beaten body. 

Nora’s vision is blurred, she looks up at Robbie as he lifts her into his arms.
Only one more look at him,
she thinks. Still, she only sees the glistening tears that rapidly form in his eyes. Tears stream down Robbie’s face as he lays Nora on the floor next to JR. Nora begins to panic, for she can no longer see or feel her children. Even, Robbie starts to fade.

“Robbie, is Aria dead? I want to see her. I need to know she is dead,” Nora says in a weak whisper as blood pours from her mouth. “Please show me everything.”

“No, Nora. You don’t want to see this,” he says kissing her hand.

“Please!” she mumbles.

He nods, touches her face, and closes his eyes. Instantly, Nora is seeing the end of the battle, replayed through Robbie’s eyes. In a slowed down, fast forward motion, Aria’s diamond figure disappears the moment Nora’s spike enters her. Aria’s pale skin glows under the blue light that Nora holds over her to keep her from using her powers. Robbie’s eyes lock on Nora dangling in the air screaming. Nora’s head is back and her arms are out to her sides. A beam of light shoots from Robbie’s hands to Nora’s chest. Blood drips from her stomach as if she’d been ripped wide open. A blob of what looks to be her insides hits the floor. Then Robbie’s eyes move to JR, who stands over Aria with Nora’s spike in one hand and Aria’s head in the other. Nora gasps with shock. Still looking through Robbie’s eyes, Nora watches in horror as Robbie races over to the blob that fell from her stomach, he picks it up and screams. The bloody mess is not Nora’s insides, it is her daughter. Nora screams, breaking from the vision.

“No! No! No!” she screams.

“Aria used her last bit of energy to finish you off. She blasted a bolt of fire at you and … before I could stop her—Lizzy teleported in front of you. In that same second JR somehow calls your spike and removes Aria’s head, releasing you from her hold,” Robbie says.

They had won the battle with Aria. Although it felt like she was dying, Nora’s body began to heal. Still, she and Robbie feel as if their life ends in this moment. They didn’t want to live knowing Lizzy would not be a part of the life that awaits them. Silence falls around Nora, as she watches Aria’s body fade away, leaving only a pool of blood.

As Nora begs for death, she reaches for Lizzy. Robbie places Lizzy’s limp body in Nora’s arms. Nora holds her tightly to her chest. Lizzy’s heart beats slowly. She wasn’t dead, not yet anyway. Nora sobs and she tightens her grip. She kisses Lizzy’s head and wipes away the blood from her face.

“Mommy has you, baby,” Nora says, brushing Lizzy’s hair with her hand.

Lizzy opens her eyes and gives Nora one last smile before her gray eyes turn white and she stops breathing. Nora shakes her gently and calls her name.

“No! No! Please, Robbie what do we do?” Nora screams.

Robbie cringes. His body shakes with pain as he holds Nora. JR sits beside the three of them and wraps his little arms around his parents. Nora pulls him close.

They hold each other until their bond causes Lizzy to shake.

Lizzy is pulled from Nora’s arms and levitates a few feet from the floor. Robbie and Nora look at each other in confusion. The room shakes, and bright, colorful beams of light fill the room, then vanishes taking Lizzy with it.

“No! Where did she go?” Nora asks furiously.

Almost completely healed, she jumps to her feet and frantically searches the room.

“She went home, Mommy,” JR says, smiling.

Nora lifts him into her arms and holds him tight. It is then she remembers Robbie saying that when a Szion dies, they go back to Boligon, so why not Lizzy?

“To Boligon?” Nora questions.

Robbie sadly shakes his head and Nora’s heart weakens. She drops to her knees beside Robbie and JR.

“I thought after Aria’s death, we would get our full powers as gods. That didn’t happen. Why?” Nora asks.

“This world is still not saved. Dumont is not dead. I am done, there is nothing I want from this world. Without Lizzy, this world is just dead space,” Robbie says.

Although Robbie loved Nora and JR, without Lizzy he and Nora are not whole as leaders, people, or as parents.

“I cannot live knowing I am the reason she is gone,” Nora weeps.

“You’re not the reason, Nora,” Robbie says.

She holds JR and they go home. Nora and Robbie stand on the front steps of their house, looking at the door. Never have they been more terrified of something as simple as walking through the door of their home. They fear what walking into that house will do to them. They can’t go in knowing that Lizzy will not come running into their arms to greet them. They fear the pain it will cause them to not hear her laugh each day. They fear they will lose themselves when Lizzy is not there each morning when they awake.

The door swings open, and Mia leaps at them with tears in her eyes. Nora sobs even more. Mia reaches for JR, but Nora snatches away. She walks past Mia and heads to her room with JR wrapped around her neck. Giggles of sweet Lizzy replays in her mind, so loudly they sound real.

“Mommy, can we go see Lizzy now?” JR asks.

Robbie sits next to Nora and wraps his arms around her as she tries to clear the giggles from her mind.

“I feel her also,” Robbie says.

Nora’s heart crumbles into a million pieces as Robbie prepares to explain to JR that he will not be able to see his sister anymore. Robbie’s sorrow and pain increases as the feeling of Lizzy’s energy grows as if she stands right next to him. They feel her running wildly and her heart pounding rapidly as it often did when she played. Nora can feel the tightness in Robbie’s chest as they both remember the moment Lizzy vanished. They are painfully reminded that none of what they are feeling can be real.

One look into JR’s eyes and neither Robbie nor Nora can say anything. A conversation no parent is ready for. How can they explain to a three-year-old that he will never see his sister again? Instead, Nora breaks down and only mumbles of I love you comes out of her mouth. JR looks up at his parents with confusion in his face.

“Mommy, Daddy, don’t be sad,” he says, hugging Nora’s neck.

Again Robbie and Nora cringe when they hear more giggles.
I am losing it and you are hearing my insanity,
Nora thinks.
We are both struggling to let her go. That is why we feel her so strongly,
Robbie silently replies.

“Would you like me to take JR to his room?” Mia offers, peeking in.

“No, we will do it, thanks,” Robbie answers.

The closer to the room they get, the louder Lizzy rang in their heads. Nora tries to block Robbie from her head so that he did not have to suffer with her, but she couldn’t and each step brought them both agonizing pain. Their minds punishing them in the cruelest of ways.

“I deserve this, but not you,” Nora says to Robbie.

Laughing rolls around their heads, making it difficult to walk.

“No one deserves this,” Robbie says.

More giggles and laughter drops Nora to her knees. With a sudden urgency, Robbie snatches JR from her arms and races to the twin’s room.

“I would rather be dead than suffer like this,” Nora whispers.

Robbie’s sudden rush of excitement sends Nora racing toward the kid’s room.

“Mommy!”

Not anyone’s imagination and they are not seeing things, it is their baby. Lizzy leaps from Robbie’s arms into Nora’s. She wraps her arms around Nora’s neck as Nora sobs in disbelief.

“Mommy, we helped you get the bad you,” Lizzy whispers into Nora’s ear.

Nora squeezes her.

“You sure did, baby.”

JR sits on Jonny’s back as Jonny crawls around, pretending to be a horse. Robbie wraps his arms around his ladies and kisses Nora. After a long moment Nora sets Lizzy down and watches proudly as she rushes Jonny.

“How?” Nora asks.

“I took Lizzy’s owie away and made her come home, Mommy,”
JR answers, using his thoughts.

Robbie reaches for him and he jumps into his arms.

“You did good, little man,” Robbie says kissing JR’s cheek.

“I don’t like that mean, Mommy,” JR says making a sad face.

“I know, none of us did, but she won't bother us anymore,” Robbie says.

JR smiles and jumps from Robbie’s arms.

“I know,” he says, racing to get his turn on the uncle Jonny horse.

Nora and Robbie sit on JR’s bed, watching their children play. Never again did they want to leave their side. At least not for a while. Soon Mia and Zen join them.

“You alright?” Zen asks Robbie.

Robbie nods.

“Their powers are unbelievable and they are still babies,” Robbie says.