Three days have passed since Callum ordered the remaining three of the Evolution Frontier to challenge Cthulhu, and now, he watched as they soundly snored within the comfortable chambers of those bedrooms within the Tower. Scraping against the skies as the peak protruded out the clouds' bottoms, Snow's drool stained her pillow while Ryosuke was flat on his back with fingers interlocked over his chest. Finally, leaving curious expressions over Rizia and Azazel's face, imaginary question marks popping upright over their heads, Kelly had decided to lay against the floor,
"Uh… why's she sleeping like that?" Karlo asked with the tilt of his head,
"Blondes are weird like that, I'll never understand them, honestly," Rizia replied at her comrade,
"Kelly sleeps like that because the floor is the best place to tell where vibrations come from. She's a natural-born caretaker, an individual who takes care of those she cares about, so if something happened to either of those two; she'd know about it from the way they moved on their mattresses," Callum's interjecting voice informed the two, steam pouring out the insides of the shower, a heated towel stood sprawled over his nape,
"Oh, so like how you can hear a heartbeat if you press your ear against the ground?" He asked their leader, to which as he turned his back, he nodded,
"By the way, Cal, I've been meaning to ask ever since we brought them back but… why exactly did we bring them back? I thought they were going to be challenging and fighting Cthulhu for acceptance?" Rizia interjected, while Rivers vanished into another room to the right of the shower he'd exited, he happily explained,
"What I said 'challenge' I didn't mean physically, I'm not an idiot, after all. If either of them would dare to fight Cthulhu, they'd perish from the very sight of him soaring into the sky with his wings-"
"That thing has wings..?" Azazel quietly whispered to Kosuke, to which they nodded with a mocking chuckle under their breath,
"Which is something we need to prevent. Luckily for us, he had no intentions of battling those three for Cthulhu is someone who ruled this Earth far before any of us ever did, or rather, he did in the Old World, at least. So, for him to accept me, he needs to accept them. For we are about the business of wiping away the old ways of the world and eliminating thousands of those compliant… and that Elite themselves. Think of him as a judge, and they're the ones on trial," The Founder calmly explained with a raspy vocalization in his voice.
Callum buckled his belt over his waist sliding it through those loops with ease, then clicking those buttons together, he started with the suit vest following that. White under black as always, even now, you could never go wrong with the classics,
"So, what're they doing then if they're not gonna fight that thing solo on their own?" Riz followed up, inquiring quizzically.
The entrance to the room opened slowly with the creaking of the hinges as the knob was yanked from the inside. Slicking back his lengthy strands that sat casually on his head's summit, Callum pointed to that room past his subordinates with a bandaged palm hiding his palm, that same one where the remaining trio was seemingly slumbering. However, that was an illusion, a simple chimera ant that was too small for any of them to truly notice,
"They're having the worst moments of their lives replayed on repeat… until they can intervene and become their true selves. For any peasant, that'd drive them to a pang of maddening guilt, henceforth leading for them to lose their will to live and finally inadvertently turning brain dead. If that occurs, it's- game over," Cal threw keys right over to Rizia so they could move their hand swiftly and catch them, meanwhile Azazel looked at his watch, tilting his head,
"Then what are we gonna do?" He asked.
"That's easy. We're going to… prepare for the main event."
Let's begin with the blonde, shall we? As if right now, sitting on the floor with drool foaming down her mouth forming a miniature puddle on the carpeted platform, Kelly Summers seemed peaceful. Snoring delightfully witnessing the most beautiful of dreams that held whatever craziness her subconscious could produce. If you were sitting next to your best friend in class and you had a crush on them, you'd be thinking about how you should confess or hint that you romantically like them.
But they never thought of you that way, all they thought of you like was a best friend who cared about you. That person just stared ahead at the teacher instructing their students… we could never tell what anyone is thinking, it's impossible to truly figure out whether someone likes you or is just faking it to make you feel better about yourself; to ensure you stay alive so they don't feel guilty about letting you die. Right now, we stand on the brink of madness as Kelly felt the wind against her face, her soul disconnected as she witnessed the sight of her past infinitely replaying before her eyes.
It was late winter, the senior year had begun for her only months prior, and she was that girl. Pretty, popular, all the roots of information at this establishment went through her and her alone. In other words, she was the queen bee. With such 'power', people are prone to believing themselves above the law, to be gods in their own right. You believe that no one else matters besides you in your little bubble of ignorance, with everyone stroking your ego, you're… invincible.
"Why did you decide to work for them? To help those in need, truly..?" That voice, she'd heard it before. Who as it again…?
Oh right, it was that thing, that horrendous face that sent her to a maddening despair every time she witnessed it when attempting to sleep. The darkness was vast, you could barely make out anything, any shapes or whatever, but as it revealed itself with yellow eyes that drove victims to insanity, she barely moved a muscle, hovering beside her. In no sudden moments, all she did was stay resigned to her feeble existence and gaze down upon this horrific sighting. That which was her past… what was the point of lying?
"I didn't. I did it because I was guilty because so needed to run away. Clear my conscience. Feel better about me,"
"Why did you feel the need to run away?"
Those events replayed like a broken record crackling with static, a culmination to stupidity that inevitably lead to a maddening collision,
"Their name was Ann,"
Some people try their hardest to mind their own business, to get through the day without truly doing anything, but it didn't matter; for people live to torment others and enjoy the suffering of those who don't deserve it. Ann was one of those victims and Kelly was the tormentor, a lunatic who got her kicks off of destroying others.
Memories of heels brushing their forehead, them being slammed into lockers, water dumped on them just trying to enter school, and last but not least, finally, just one day, while trying to leave early, they were jumped by a dozen or two kids. The hits were agonizing, the pain was unnecessary, it bruised their body so much, they could feel those blows emanating into their very soul, and when they inevitably got home to their loving parents; that was when the collision happened.
The following day, they didn't attend class, and Kelly sat near the back, fiddling with her thumbs then yawning after. Their name was called,
"Anna? Anna Lockhart-?" That was when the PA turned on and the announcement was broadcast throughout the school's abundance of speakers. That name. 'Anna Lockhart.'
"It is with great sadness and despair that we bring this news to you. A freshman by the name of Anna Lockhart has committed suicide, assumed to have done so early last night. We'll be holding a memorial for her in the auditorium at 6th period for all students and faculty. Thank you for your time,"
The second those words entered her ears, it had hit; those memories had become a reality and it all became true, it was all her fault and she could never bring it back. She suppressed the urge to vomit, brown eyes withholding the light of life in the center of the pupil, with her legs guiding her forward, she carelessly strolled out of the classroom. The teacher's objections were silent as the world had gone dark, and the surroundings blacked out. What was this feeling? Why did she experience this now after she didn't feel anything when harming them?
The realization that you are a bad person comes only when you witness the consequences of your arrogant and idiotic actions. Her blonde hair was a symbol of that arrogance, asl it glowed with a golden hue in the air, the winter's chill embraced her without hesitation; she wished for it to envelop not only her body but her soul, she didn't deserve to live anymore. She was but a hollow shell of a girl, someone who'd led an innocent human being to take their lives, a person who never did anything wrong, but instead was 'good'.
That hate that she'd channeled wasn't meant for anyone else, a result of her upbringing, surrounded by the idiotic offspring of demons- that hatred she directed toward those who didn't deserve it had bounced against that hanging corpse to aim at herself. Without a care in the world for her grades or reputation embedded into the students' mind frames, she walked off into the chill of that season and vanished without a trace.
In the case of Kelly Summers, what you just witnessed was the worst moment in her life, the initial shock after realizing you killed someone because of your actions. She set off on a journey of self-discovery to find a way to make herself better in the long run, however, in the end, this decision was not fueled by a desire to do right but one to clear a guilty conscience and convince herself that she was better.
As of now, the present Kelly peering into the past was drowning in an indescribable emptiness that could never be cured.