A Sinner's Freedom

[B : So, this is the first story I've uploaded to writing.com and I have posted it up on another site but I'm hoping that the society here will be more usefull in helping me improve my writing! I hope whoever reads this little bit of madness enjoys it.]



"You think we'll make it?" Eliri asked her big brother with her small hands clasped tightly around his larger one. She was scared even though the end was near because, for some reason she could not shake off the feeling of foreboding that had turned her stomach to ice. However she had to look ahead positively. Finally, finally, they'd have their freedom. Her big brother nodded once in solemn answer. His mind was clear and ordered according to his objective and the list of obstacles in the way of that objective. He would make sure that his dear sweet Eliri was safe no matter what, everything else fell under minor tasks to that end. 

Odd howls surrounded them in the ominous dead silence of space as the strong drafts created in the cruiser ship's wake battered at their protective suits. Her big brother used his body as a wind breaker for Eliri as they continued on along the slippery short ledges at the side of the ship they'd hitched hiked. The nerves that ran riot within her made her footing unsteady and she slipped then with a heart wrenching sound that was not a scream but shook her big brother from his focus. This was why he had insisted she hold his hand and when she'd slipped he simply swung her to his front and carried her like the child she was. In his iron grip she'd never fall.

Shaken as she was Eliri was thankful that she had her big brother with her on this illicit journey. Where would she be without him? With an air of calm, the tall block of muscle that was her big brother continued on, his tension lessening slightly as her shivering quieted somewhat. As they journeyed further back to the rear of the ship he thought the twinkling stars around them seemed to mock them. Those vivid signs of life seeming to laughing down at their near constant fight for it.  Yet not too far ahead of them lay the way to their freedom. His retribution. Her future.

"I'm scared." Eliri whispered to him though she knew he could feel her pain as clearly as his own. She was blind to all things but his form as he was deaf to all sound save for her voice. That was the way it had become after they had each unleashed their evils unto the cruel world that come to deserve nothing less than the bowels of hell. At long last they had come to rest just above the twin turbine Energon Spores at the rear that were only large enough to push the giant craft along the currents of space. The residual light they created danced along their gaunt faces, his expression was grim and determined with his lips set in a grim line where hers was frightened and overwhelmed -her eyes wide and glassy.

"We must do this, mustn't we?" She told him, panic licking at every word. In reply her big brother held her face up to his as his eyes bored into her darkened ones revealing to her a vision of the past. A past in which they had both been slaves. He had become a godless slayer - a wretched destroyer of life where he once was sworn to protect it. Once upon a time she had been a child of the temple, her duty to pray and her life given to the gods. And then after the conquest of their little sanctuary she was soiled, becoming a plaything for their master's sons, daughters and guests. The memory of her own desperate cries assaulted her as she remembered begging to be given respite from the carnal sins imposed on her.

In her mind’s eye she saw the exact moment that her big brother had lost control. He'd enacted the bloodiest of retribution upon their masters, ending the lives of both sinners and innocents alike in his anguished rampage. Of a town of many souls, only two their two had remained after the carnage. The maddened creature who'd slaughtered them all -her big brother- and the tarnished girl of a woman who was the shell of Eliri. They had both lost something of themselves in their impromptu grab at freedom. No longer were they worthy of the gods they had so cherished in their youths. Now they were merely harbingers of death, dealing it out at every turn where it hindered their ultimate goal. Freedom.

"I know. I know." She replied mournfully as the tears fell from her darkened eyes. But her face remained still, expressionless. Yet another side effect of what they had become. With a tender soothing kiss to her shaven head her big brother released her and set to work preparing the strange gears that would help lead them to another world. A better world, one where they would be free forever.  Her belief in that future was a fledgling thing, still learning how to fly where it had been crushed before. Having learnt to be wary at all times she then set her sharp ears to tracking, to hearing above the din of the Energon Spores and protecting her protector while he worked at garnering their freedom.

At first all was well and as it should be. Nothing more than the mighty roar of the orbs of heat below her and the steady beat of her big brother's heart as he worked in practiced silence. He would have been a inventor of great repute, his mind quick and his work ethic unchallenged. No, she thought firmly with a shake of her head. He would still become the great thinker that he was always destined to be. And for a moment all was calm. Her fragile belief began once more to build itself up. They had come so far, to the edges of a universe now enslaved to the laws of The One True God. Yes, they had taken more lives in their mad dash for freedom and their hands were now stained red with the impurities of their actions. However their resolve had stuck through all those difficult times.

It was then that she heard it. Sharp stabbing sounds like pebbles launched against brittle glass. The comfortable peace they'd had shattered. She hurried to her big brother's side and touched his skin. "They've found us!" She yelled to him knowing he could discern her frantic emotion better than he could actually her her words. "They're here!" She said to herself dejection setting in and her belief taking a swan dive. Her big brother felt her terror like it was his own and he quieted her the only way he knew how. He held her in his warm embrace silently vowing to protect her now as he'd been unable to before.

Her courage returned to her as he released her and stood to fight, his weapon of light at the ready. He would once more become the destroyer to protect her. Realising that his work was only half way down, Eliri shook her head and reached for him once more. "Let me hold them at bay. You finish your work here." She instructed him, her urgency palpable. Even while acknowledging the wisdom of her words her big brother still shook his massive head adamantly in clear refusal. She thought him stubborn but the fond thought armoured her shaky belief. Sometimes he forgot that she too had become a destroyer, a taker of life.

"Hurry." She whispered with a gentle kiss on his cheek. Then she fled up to the roof of the hulking ship with the speed and grace of a tendril of dark smoke. The ship continued its slow journey oblivious of the happenings atop it. Her big brother's roar of frustration sounded directly behind her and her heart was gladdened by it. Now she had to be brave for them both. "Well well, if it ain't the blind one. Did you come to surrender or to die bitch? 'Cause either way you're dead." Announced a familiar grimy voice from what she judged to be ten paces from her to her left.

It was the Hunter. This time he'd come with a small army to take them. Or kill them. She could hear their eager breaths as they fanned out around her. She could smell the strong drink on their breaths and it was likely that they drank to calm themselves. They had never faced anything like the creature she'd become. She was glad she couldn't make out their faces for fear of laughing in at them. The Hunter on the other hand was strong. So many times before they had thought him dead, killed at their hands and yet he kept returning over and over again -heedless of the call of death they brought forth to their enemies.

The cold metal of his gait drew three steps closer. The sound was odd and new and Eliri had a hard time associating it to his scent. Then she remembered. Oh yes, the last time they'd encountered him he'd lost the limbs below his waist. He was now more mechanical toy than living breathing thing. "Where's your boyfriend little bitch? Ain't he always a step in front of you?" His sickening voice enquired as he cocked his weapon and waited for it to load. Eliri sank to the ground, ignoring his words and closed her eyes, a reflex from many years of practice. Entwining her fingers to represent the leaves of the Once Sacred Tree she began to clear her mind of the fog that was life.   

"Is she beggin' us to forgive her boss?" One lackey enquired of his current employer. He liked his women mature but this little girl before him looked interesting in the skin tight protective suit. "Heck dumbass I don't give a shit. This here's an animal, rutting with her own kin and killing everything in sight. I say we make this 'ere universe a betta place and get rid of 'em both." the Hunter replied spitting in disgust at her.

When Eliri fancied she could see she'd always supposed him to be as gruesome and grotesque as his speech. "Ridding the universe of your filth would be more appropriate would it not?" She whispered to the winds that carried her threat to the men that were slowing moving in to trap her. The Hunter's latest recruits only laughed confidently, thinking themselves far stronger and capable than one helpless little girl who sat on the floor praying. Their employer however stopped dead in his tracks. The wheels of his mind began turning as he processed the girl as a threat. She wasn't strong, she was blind and she didn't appear to be tensing for attack.

He could see it now, although he could not understand it. Whenever his recruits in the past had faced this wanted criminal, they would always cry out that there were multiple attackers. He had never been there personally to witness it because he'd always contended with the bigger one. He'd only ever seen the gory aftermath. She was dangerous, that was for damned sure but he couldn't figure out how. He continued to close in on her, shaking off the foreboding that had assailed him. He had many men against only one of them now. They could take her on easily. It was the bigger one they had to worry about.

When Eliri sensed that her warning had not been heeded, she began the slow release of the monster within her. With a deep breath she unlocked it from the cage she stuffed it in, surrounded by fond memories of laughter and love that it so hated. The monster rejoiced, eager to play, excited at its chance to turn brother against brother and manipulate lover to murder lover. Twin Rivers of dark blood leaked from her blackened eyes down past her serene face.  It was the recompense for all the horrors that she unleashed on the natural world. From the ether, snow white petals in the shape of spades rained down on them, blanketing the scene with light and the fresh scent of pure snow. The blooms of the Once Sacred Tree set to containing the carnage to this sight alone.

Taken aback by the sudden theatrics the new recruits stood in question, as if awaiting orders from their employer. As the petals of white stuck to their suits as though sown on the recruits were... changed. The petals were nothing more than illusions, carriers for the insidious power that was Eliri's to control. As the recruits stood still the petals began to melt, to dissipate into their suits. Though Eliri's eyes could not see them, she could feel the string like microbes as they came alive at feel of each hosts nervous systems' signals. They now crawled into the pores of each mercenary's skin and travelled up every available orifice to the epicentre of the brain. After that it was no hardship as they spread like wildfire across the host's body. They began to duplicate themselves as they raced across each nerve to coat each organ, each vein and ultimately each cell until the host was nothing more than a sacrifice under the direct control of Eliri herself.

The infection only lasted the time it took for Eliri's dark tears to touch the ground and when the first drop of dark blood splashed against the thick metal at her feet, they all turned on one another. They dropped their weapons and began tearing at each other like mindless beasts that craved nothing more than their own destruction. They attacked each other with a viscous intent to kill unseen before and as Eliri's tears fell one by one, so did they. At length they had succeeded in ripping each other apart in a furious riot of snarls and tears because even though they had no control over themselves, they were still fully aware of their actions. Eliri's monster saved the Hunter for last. He would have the most painful death as he regained control of a body slowly shutting itself down. 

The parasites that had invaded the now deceased recruits' bodies began to decay with their lifeless hosts. The Hunter, as if on cue, began to howl in agony as his veins turned to fire and his head too full. It swelled, that head as the parasites sang their fell well before it burst splattering across the floor and added its own colour to the grisly artwork of death below. When all was done the lone survivor, the puppet master fell back to gaze up sightlessly at the dark sky. She gasped for breath as her eyes burned deep into her skull, the souls she had taken scratching away at her sanity. However she was well accustomed to the sensation now focusing on reigning in that horror she kept close to her heart. 

She cried out in torment then, the monster within her refusing to be caged in once more. The pain was so intense her traitorous mind often wondering if this was not a fate worse than death. Never before had she felt its equal. In the distance she heard her big brother cry out as he felt only the slightest fraction of the pain that she could not save him from. It grew so intense she feared she would black out, heedless to her actions in her unconscious state. The puppet master turned puppet. Her big brother roared once more and suddenly, there was nothing but silence. A cold creeping silence that reeked of death.   

There. It was done now. The last time she would ever let herself unleash this terrible curse upon the living. No more, her soul was too far gone now but no more would she let it ravish her enemies. She who was once without enemies. She who was once the daughter of gods. Turned slave, deflowered and now the wielder of death itself. No more. From hence forth she would find a place to cleanse herself and her brother of this foul darkness. They would start over. She would use this burden to help heal those around her and her big brother would use his mind to think up the wondrous inventions he always had.   

In the quiet darkness Eliri imagined the peaceful lives they would lead after all this was over. Her belief now had no choice but to assert itself confidently. She touched her stomach letting herself wonder if she could one day become a giver of life instead of its taker? The thought filled her with the warmth of hope. "So there you are heathen." An unfamiliar voice whispered into her mind. Alert, Eliri jumped to her feet and turned this way and that, trying to sense if anyone was with her. She turned, about to flee to her big brother's side and that was when it happened. She felt a light strange light before her.

It was warm and comforting, the likes of which she had only ever felt once before. The light was untainted, it all that was beautiful and all that was good in life as it touched her soul. Her big brother screamed out in her head and she awoke from her hypnotised state in time to hear the swing of a blade as it fell on her. There was no time to even panic. All she could do now was to send out her parting wish to her beloved big brother before her end came.

"Live." His Eliri's sweet voice carried through the winds to where he climbed up the surface of the craft, his claws digging into the metal for grip. He'd finished the preparations in time to sense the strangeness that had assailed his sister. He'd searched within himself, relived at finding her there only to feel her presence abruptly withdraw a moment later. His panic propelled him faster upwards until at last he'd reached the roof where his Eliri lay motionless in the arms of some creature shrouded in dark veils.  Stunned motionless he could not process it. He staggered falling to the ground where he stood. He clawed at his heart, sharp grief ripping at his sanity. His cry echoed far into the nulls of space as he bounded in a single leap to where his sister lay, limp, cold and sightless.

Somewhere midair, his body was frozen. He could not move closer to Eliri, he could not force that vile creature away from her helpless form. He could do nothing but remain imprisoned above the place he most wanted to be. He wanted to howl in torment, how dare they come between his heart! How dare they take her away from him! Before her body there appeared a man who was clothed in a white robe, Eliri's blood sprayed across its front. Behind the man who bore Eliri’s blood knelt two other forms also shrouded in dark robes of dimmed emerald and tanzanite, their hands touching his sister's hands and feet. Rage engulfed him at the sight but sorrow overwhelmed it. His heart was in his tortured cry, muffled though it was by the force that kept him aloft.

The man in the white robes nodded to the shadow the big brother had not noticed behind him. She felt it then, the same strange light that had filled his precious sister before she… He was defeated. He'd follow her wherever she went, the failure that she was. "Forgive me." He whispered in the forgotten tongue of his forefathers as he did the one thing he had not done since after their capture. He prayed. The Reaper faltered as the recognition of his words sunk in. However, her blade soon found purchase and her captive fell to the ground next to the girl's prone form.

The light from his clear green eyes faded as death pulled at him. He pulled his useless body closer to the girl's, refusing that cold pull. His desperation tempered by his dissipating strength. Darkness covered his vision as his out stretched hand fell limply onto her midriff. His last thought was that she was no longer scared nor was she alone on their metal death bed. There they both lay, covered in the dark pool of their mingling blood. The Reaper knelt down beside the two children who should have been hers to protect and lamented in the same tongue the boy had used before her own blade had cut him down. She did not feel anything but rage these endless days and today she felt a surfeit of that hellish emotion. At the core of it she was overcome with great sorrow and worst of all a shameful guilt she feared would haunt her undying ages.

"What? Sentimental are we? The plight of one monstrosity is relatable to another?" Her master commented as he fastidiously cleaned his piercing white robes. He used her power so willingly for such small things that fool. She stared up at the Warrior Priest as she knelt before the two bodies. Her soulless eyes held within them the vilest of oaths. Content with the fact that she had frightened the cowardly brute into silence she continued to hum an ancient prayer. A prayer that none of the One True God's servants would ever know. Then she touched her palms to close the lifeless eyes of these children of forgotten gods who'd had to grow up far too quickly in the new order.

Using her power as she seldom did she search for the spark of their souls. Shoe found them bound together at the cusp of an afterlife undeserving of them both and she gabbed at them. Seething with scantly dormant power she embraced their souls before she cast them back into the cycle of rebirth. She'd ensured that they would always be together. With her task complete she stood, watching as the Priest's holy fire burnt their bodies to ash and scattered them to the currents of the wide abyss that was space. "What have you done you heathen?" The pompous Priest enquired of the Reaper as she floated in that uncanny way to join her two equally vile and godless sisters.

All three of them stood united against him. The robes that covered every inch of them without fail aflutter in the currents that pulled at the muted silks as though a mirror of their swirling hatred towards him. With their eyes a gleaming deathly obsidian they promised him thusly in answer, "Nothing so bad as what we shall do with your soul, Warrior Priest of The One True God." The passive venom in their insidious voices causing yet another chill to shake his tall frame. Satisfied in his terror they cackled, floating about in the atmosphere like plastic in the wind before they entered into his body one by one taking great care to bring him more pain today than he'd ever known before.

The Priest fell to the ground in pain and though hot tears sprang to his eyes he quelled them in order to pray to God for his tainted soul. When the last of the evil cackles ceased the priest stood shakily and laughed sadly at his bloody tears. Ah, but to accommodate such evil into his body temple was too much for one man. He used their power to cleanse this place of death all the while praying for his own damned soul.


{B: As always, all input on this story is highly appreciated. Granted of course that it has a solid basis!}