Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 8
(PART 2)
“You know... When I invited you to stay at our house, I didn't mean I wanted you to follow me around everywhere! You haven't left me alone at all the past couple days!” Amber shouted while nudging the person to her right.
Her and Ubica are walking along the roads of the seaside city in which Amber lives; it is early morning and they are both heading to do some shopping at the local market for breakfast.
After the small storm that just ended the night before, the morning is a little brisk but the air is clean and the sun is out making this a very pleasant start to the day.
“Who says I'm following you?”
“Hah? Common sense says so! When I woke up you were waiting for me! Are you some kind of stalker!?”
Since Leviathan's warning, Ubica has been keeping a close eye on her, for the most part he hasn't left her side whether she has noticed it or not. Though this fits the description of a stalker perfectly, the only reason he is doing this is to protect her from danger.
But still, hearing her say that makes his shoulders jolt.
“Stalker!?”
“Oooaaah! Oh no! I invited a stalker into my house! What should I do? Call the police? Somebody help me!!”
The two are causing a scene and the concerned glares from the citizens of the seaside city pelt them like a group of people throwing rocks.
It would seem that only Ubica feels it and he frantically tries to cool the situation.
“S-Shut up!” he yelps as he nudges her back.
The eyes of the onlookers set on fire at the sight of him doing this, so instead of cooling the situation he threw gasoline on the open flame. Another one of Ubica's clumsy obscurities, he blushes in frustration at how this whole thing unfolded.
Amber laughs as if making fun of him, “Hahahaha if you don't shape up you're gonna be in serious trouble! Stalker!”
Now Ubica frowns, he sharply blows air out of his nose and walks the opposite way of her. “Fine! If you're going to be like that than I'm just gonna go back to the lagoon!”
“Oh come on.” Amber said with a sigh, implying that he's being a baby.
She waits for him to stop and come back to her but he keeps walking away into the crowd.
(He can't be serious right?) she thinks to herself when he almost walks out of sight.
Thinking back on what she had just done, perhaps her little joke has offended him. (I don't want him to leave...) she thinks as she starts to walk toward him through the crowd. (Not over something as stupid as that!)
Her walk turns into a jog and that jog turns into a run.
“Ubica wait!”
Ubica stops walking and she quickly latches onto his arm so he doesn't leave again.
“I'm sorry about that... Don't be mad okay? I was only kidding..”
"..."
Ubica drops his head and hides his eyes under his silver hair, he doesn't reply and stays silent.
“Ubica?” Amber asks, wanting some kind of a reply.
After a couple more seconds of silence she seriously thinks he's extremely mad, she stutters a little as she tries to find words to make him forgive her when...
“Pffft...”
A puff of air escapes from Ubica's lips and is quickly followed by a laugh.
“Hahahahahahaha.”
“Wha?” Amber mutters in surprise.
“Hahaha you totally fell for it. Like I'd actually be that bitter over something like that, your reaction was priceless.”
Amber's face turns bright red as the embarrassment of looking like an idiot and being laughed at for it hits her.
“Y-You... I was seriously trying to be considerate just now you jerk!”
“I know, that's what makes it even more funny.”
She puffs her cheeks out and frowns. “Fine, I'm not gonna give you anymore credit than you deserve, you got me.”
He smiles widely and gives off a haughty air when he says, “There's a certain girl I know who always picks on me so I've learned how to get sweet revenge from past experience with her..."
As soon as he said that, he thinks of that certain girl and his expression turns solemn. He doesn't even know if that girl is alright or not and the brief moment where his thoughts on this subject wavered ended abruptly.
“You know you're really bad at jokes.” Amber says with a straight face, “Of course I'd fall for it if you play it off like that... I was really worried.”
“Worried?”
“You know, I actually like having you around. If you left I'd be sad.”
Ubica looks at her with skepticism glowing in his eyes.
Amber sees this and answers, “I'm serious, mornings have been a lot more fun since you started accompanying me. My dad is too lazy to wake up with me and my mom only does housework. My brother is always cooped up in his office and my sister takes care of the kids. It's nice to have someone to talk to.”
“Oh...” He scratches his head. “Well why doesn't your fiance join you?”
“Hah!?” she groans.
“No?”
“No way! I couldn't do that, I can barely even mutter a word to him. I wouldn't dream of spending all morning fumbling for things to say, it'd be so embarrassing!”
“Well you have to learn to talk to him sooner or later.”
Amber puffs her cheeks out and blushes, just thinking of that gives her the feeling of butterflies in her stomach.
“Uuuuu~”
“Jeez I don't get you sometimes, how is he so much different from me?”
“Because I'm not getting married to you duh!”
“Then it is supposed to be more difficult talking to me since I'm pretty much a stranger.”
“No it's not! You are way easier to talk to!”
“Why?”
“Because you're----”
Amber stops herself midway, she was about to blurt some dangerous words out without thinking.
“Because I'm what?” Ubica asks with a sigh assuming that she stopped herself from calling him an idiot or something.
Amber's face again turns bright red, she knows what she was just about to say and upon realizing the feelings behind it, her heart beats wildly.
“Eh-uh...”
Squirming awkwardly as she tries to find the right words to say, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a piece of paper.
She slams it against Ubica's chest along with some money and shouts, “I forgot something back at home! Do the rest of the shopping and I'll meet you there!”
Without giving him a chance to speak, she runs off into the morning crowd and disappears, leaving him confused.
He opens the folded paper and sees that it is a shopping list filled with the desired items and the prices of them hand written on the side.
Ubica sighs and asks himself, “What was the point in even coming to stop me if she was just going to leave anyways? Uaaah! And why do I have to do all the shopping!?”
Amber swerves her way through people as if she had stolen something, not paying attention to where she is going.
In her mind, she repeats the dangerous words she almost carelessly let slip.
(It's because he's better?)
“It can't be..” she says to herself while breathing hard due to her sprint. “I like him?”
She shuts her eyes and shakes her head trying to shoo that thought away when...
THUNK!
Amber runs head on into someone and falls on her butt.
She looks to find out who it was so she can apologize and sees a tall man with bright blue eyes and dark blue hair still standing but with a spilled drink on his white coat.
Amber quickly jumps to her feet and bows, “I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention.”
The man smiles tenderly and replies, “No problem, these things tend to happen every once in a while.”
“U-Um, you just bought that drink right?” she asks while pointing at a food stand directly behind him that sells cold drinks. “Let me reimburse you.”
“Oh no you don't have to worry about that.” he replies politely.
“No way! I'd feel terrible if I didn't! Come with me.”
Amber leads the blue haired man back to the food stand and walks to the clerk. “We need a refill on the drink this man here just bought.”
The clerk recognizes the man and pours it into a disposable cup, he holds it out and tells her what the price of the drink is.
Amber smiles and pulls out her wallet from her back pocket, she opens it up so she can pay him when,
“Eh..?”
The money she had in her wallet is gone.
“Crap! I gave all of my money to that idiot!”
The blue haired man chuckles, he can sense her embarrassment.
“Allow me to cover it.” The man pays the clerk and turns to Amber to ask, “Would you like anything?”
“N-No thank you! It's impossible for me to have you pay for me after this mess!”
“Alright then.” he turns to the clerk and asks, “Could I just get her a cup of water?”
The blue haired man gives her the water and says, “Drink up, you must be thirsty after all that running.”
Amber sighs and obliges, she downs the water and softly says, “Thank you.”
The man smiles, “Well it was nice to meet your acquaintance, please be a little more careful on your way.”
He then turns and walks off.
“W-Wait!” Amber yells, causing him to stop and turn around. “What's your name?”
The man again smiles and answers,
“Leviathan.”
Trojia is watching yet another scene of horror as Ubica and Messor watch hundreds of thousands of desperate humans being led towards an army demons to get branded with the Mark of the Beast.
They all wait in line in somewhat of a hectic manner and the screams of pain from the ones having red hot iron in the shape of 666 is pressed against their forehead or hand is heard.
The people in line are being forced into order by demons, anyone who tries to escape is killed on the spot and the ones who refuse to be branded are tortured and killed as well. This way even the ones who have second thoughts about this would choose to be loyal to the Anti-Christ in fear of the most horrid kinds of death.
“Those humans... It's a lose lose situation for them.” said Ubica, looking down on the people through a window of a skyscraper.
Messor latches on to his arm and puts her head on his shoulder. “Any human that believes in God not taken away in the Rapture will have to suffer through 'God's Anger' during the Apocalypse. God's standards are too difficult for a normal person, only the truest followers of his teachings were accepted into Heaven without having to die miserably here on Earth. They were the true losers of this war from day one.”
“And the one's actually saved in the rapture were so few it's comical. I guess there aren't too many devout followers left in this day and age filled with so much sin.”
“This scene of desperation...” Messor says looking at the hundreds of thousands of people getting branded. “It's beautiful isn't it?”
“It's about as pure of a scene one can witness. This is man in its purest form, they are like moths flying into fire, rushing blindly toward any light of salvation.”
“And this is happening all over the world as we speak. Your army is going to be massive.”
“I expect 2/3 of the Earth's population will make it past the time period of 'God's Anger', the remainder will be fighting alongside me during Armageddon. To say that I hold the advantage is just pointing out the obvious."
“Well then, shall we make our trip to the battlefield?”
Ubica smiles and takes her hand, the two walk toward the exit when he replies,
“Let's go.”
The current Ubica is wearing a frustrated face as he finally gets back to Amber's house while holding multiple shopping bags filled with food items. He has been juggling them all by himself and is displeased at the fact that she wasn't there to help.
He knocks on the door with his foot and is surprised when the door opens by itself.
“Huh?”
Ubica walks in and instantly gets a bad feeling as he walks through the hallway and is greeted by nothing but silence.
But after a few moments, Amber's voice is heard talking like music to his ears.
He sighs and says loud in an annoyed manner, “You know you left the door open.”
He turns the corner and sees Amber in the living room talking to somebody, but the view of the person she is talking to is blocked by one of the many shopping bags he's holding.
“Ah, Ubica.” Amber says as she gets off the stool that rests by the bar area connected to the kitchen. “I want you to meet somebody, let me help you with that.”
She lightens Ubica's load by taking a few of the shopping bags from him.
As soon as she does this, his vision is no longer blocked and he sees a certain man with bright blue eyes and dark blue hair sitting on the stool as if he belongs there.
Ubica's body jolts and he almost drops the shopping bags in shock.
“This is Leviathan, I ran into him on the way back home earlier and spilled a drink on him.” Amber says with her back turned, “When I tried to pay him back I found out I gave you all the money so I figured the least I could do was invite him back for breakfast. We've been waiting for you to come so I could start cooking.”
Ubica tries to remain calm and keep himself from attacking Leviathan right on the spot. He puts the rest of the bags on the kitchen counter and avoids eye contact with him.
“I-Is that so..?” he mutters in a cracked voice.
“So this is Ubica huh? This girl thinks the world of you you know, it's nice to meet you.” Leviathan said with a smile that just eats at Ubica's soul.
Ubica holds back a disgusted frown and doesn't reply.
“H-Hey don't say something so embarrassing!” Amber shouts bashfully.
“It's true isn't it? Since we got here he's the only person you've been talking about.” Leviathan gently said, revealing a tender, non threatening face.
“Uuaah!? That's not true at all!”
Ubica, paying no mind to what he is saying, glares at the demon, trying his best to find the ulterior motive behind that fake smile.
Is this some kind of test? Is he trying to see if Ubica can hold his composure under such threatening circumstances?
Not knowing for sure, he tries his best to avoid confrontation.
“So Amber, where are your parents?”
“My mom and dad left me a note saying they're going on a date and won't be back till later. Really, those two are still just like little kids.”
“So it was just you two until I got here?”
“Yeah.”
“You idiot!”
“Whoa where did that come from!?”
Ubica fails in his desperate attempt to keep his composure and takes his anger out on the girl who's so kind it's dangerous.
“How can you just let a stranger into your house like this!? Do you have any idea what could have happened if I hadn't come when I did??”
“Don't treat me like a child, I know what I am doing!”
“You obviously don't! You are too damn oblivious and you make decisions way too fast! If you actually think about what you do before doing it this kind of thing would never happen!”
“So you're saying I shouldn't have brought you over either!?”
When she said that, Ubica grits his teeth and holds back, little does she know, she is right. She shouldn't have ever given Ubica more than a few words, if she hadn't she and her family would be safe, and she would not have the 2nd ranking member of Hell's Hierarchy sitting in her living room.
“I think I should take my leave.” Leviathan said as he stands to his feet. “I don't want to cause any problems so it's best that I go.”
He starts walking towards the door and Amber tries to keep him in by saying, “No it's not like that, please stay.”
Leviathan halts for a moment and then he feels the heavy words from Ubica beat on him.
“Get out.”
Leviathan smiles and walks to the door and bumps shoulders with Ubica.
He pauses again and whispers into his ear, “Meet me at the lagoon at sundown. Tonight's the night we end this Ubica, I'm looking forward to seeing if you can pass this test.”
“I said go!!” Ubica shouts angrily.
He obliges and opens the door to leave, but not before he leaves Amber with some parting words.
“You really are kind Amber.”
With his back turned to them, he purposely says under his breath so only Ubica can hear,
“It's just a shame that you wasted it on this man...”
The door shuts and Ubica and Amber are left in an awkward silence.
Realizing what had just happened Amber shouts, “What was that all about!?”
She is genuinely angry at Ubica for what he had just done, she almost can't believe that someone could be so rude to a guest.
Ubica walks toward Amber with a straight face, for some reason this face of his causes Amber to instinctively back up when he gets closer and she keeps stepping backwards until her back hits the wall.
“W-What are you doing?” she asks nervously.
Ubica doesn't answer and holds out both of his hands.
Amber shuts her eyes and feels the sensation of his two open palms caressing each of her cheeks, she opens up her eyes and sees Ubica worriedly glaring at her. She blushes to her ears and holds back a moan as his hands slide from her face, down her neck, to her shoulders, down her waist and past her thighs.
This is certainly something that she should not be accepting, but it's odd, she doesn't want him to stop, and when he does she feels a strange singe of disappointment instead of relief.
Ubica sighs as though he had just released a pressure stuck in the pit of his psyche and his breath hits her forehead like a gentle breeze.
The room is so silent that she is positive he can hear her heart beating through her chest.
“I'm sorry Amber... I just wanted to make sure you're alright.”
(What kind of lame excuse for touching me is that?) she thinks to herself, (What could possibly be so bad that he'd show me that kind of face?)
Amber is confused by his actions and has no clue what to even think about all this, but there is one thing she feels for some reason, a sense of security.
“I-It's fine.” she replied softly as she looks to the floor.
Ubica takes his hand and gently grabs her chin, he moves her head towards him so the two are looking each other square in the eye when he says, “Listen... I have something I need to tell you... I----”
Knock! Knock! Knock!
This sound comes from the door and interrupts his speech, thinking that it could be Leviathan again, Ubica frowns and goes to the door, leaving a flustered Amber behind.
(What was he going to say?) Amber thinks as she watches his back.
Ubica opens the door abruptly and greets the person standing on the stoop with an unintentional frown.
The person receiving that look is none other than Amber's future husband Tuscany.
He jolts back at this sight but remains polite when he asks, “Excuse me?”
“Ah, sorry about that.” Ubica apologizes as he leads him in.
Tuscany reaches the living room and finds a flustered and silent Amber leaning against the wall in a suspicious way.
“Am I interrupting something?”
“No not at all.” Ubica replies, “I was just leaving actually. I helped Amber in her shopping this morning so she could make you food if you happened to come over, although I don't know what half the things she bought were, I'm sure it'll taste great.”
It's obvious that Ubica put on a fake smile and made up that story for her sake, she could see that from a mile away.
But Tuscany seemed to not notice and turns to her. “Is that so? Well then I'm looking forward to it.”
Amber smiles at him and shifts her gaze back toward Ubica's direction, only to see that he has already left the house.
Now with just her fiance, she finds it difficult to conjure up a topic to talk about, so instead of speaking she just pours him a drink and hands it to him.
“Thanks.”
Amber zones out on him while he drinks causing him to blush when he feels her glare.
“Is there something on my face?” he asks nervously.
Amber's intense glare doesn't leave him but the only thing running through her mind is the left over feeling of Ubica's hands on her body, and the look of that worried face of his while he was doing so.
She takes a deep breath and puts her hand on her chest, her voice becomes very soft when she says,
“This isn't right...”
Ubica the Anti-Christ leads his army that's so massive it literally covers the Earth's ground as far as the eye can see in every which direction.
Standing opposite of this army that numbers in the billions, is the benevolent army of Heaven which pales in comparison in sheer numbers but glows with the confidence that there is no way they'd lose.
The two massive forces stare down at each other on the grounds of the Valley of Harmagiddo in the holy land of Jerusalem.
The sky is a dark crimson red and wreaks of sulfur and blood due to the ravaging of 'God's Anger' and the Four Horsemen. The aftermaths of their destruction still fall in the form of falling comets. The sound of explosions reverberate from all around and aftershocks from the recent earthquakes still ring around the feet.
This is without a doubt the darkest moment this world has ever seen, led into its deepest depths by none other than Ubica the Anti-Christ.
“That damn air around them.” Ubica says as he stands at the helm of the billions strong army. “I hate it.”
He frowns and turns to a demon standing behind him to his left with three heads, one head being a human, the other a cat, and the last one is a toad. His body resembles a human, with thick brown hair all over but he has a long slimy tail that looks like it belongs to a tadpole sliding across the ground collecting dirt.
Quite a disgusting figure to say the least.
“Bael, I want you and your men to cover the left flank of God's army. I'd assume you and your rag-tag legions could at least put a dent in them. Right after, I'll send more to back you up.”
The disfigured demon replies, “I'm called 'King' Bael in east Hell you know.”
Ubica looks at him dejectedly with the one eye that isn't behind that odd mask. “Do you actually think that I'd ever address you with any added honorifics? Why would I do that if I can easily kill you and take your pathetic 66 legions and destroy them myself? With that in mind, do you really wish for me to call you King?”
It would seem that Ubica is genuinely angry at that little comment, this moment is so tense that even the slightest thing can send him over the edge.
Bael, who is a respected figure as a King of Hell is very proud of his lineage. He, along with 71 other Counts, Dukes, Marquis, Presidents, Princes, and Kings of Hell are proud leaders with hundreds of legions of demons under their control.
Though their titles are grand, their ranks in the Hierarchy are still nowhere near the 7 Demons of Hierarchy.
So to Ubica, who is commanding even the highest ranked demons in the Hierarchy, calling him anything more than what's needed is felt as an insult. In his mind the demon standing before him is lucky that he even knows his name.
Apparently Bael doesn't feel that way and voices his opinion, “It isn't a matter of strength here, it's a matter of respect. You are nothing more than a few years old, the fact that I am serving under you as your elder should be enough for me to earn that right to be addressed by my title.”
Ubica grits his teeth and takes a deep breath, having this stubborn demon argue with him over something so petty in such a dire situation like the battle of Armageddon is really testing his impatient nature.
“Let me ask you something.” Ubica says as he looks into the human eyes of Bael. “Do you know why I wear this mask of mine?”
“..?”
Ubica's lips rise as he reaches his hand to his mask. “I use it to block off some of my power from harming my own 'comrades' and the weak humans that follow me.”
He takes the mask off and glares at him with both of his menacing eyes.
The Mark of the Beast on the hand of Bael begins to burn and the demon writhes in pain as the horrid sensation spreads throughout his body.
“Arrrrggghh!!” he groans.
“Do you feel it?” Ubica asks as though mocking him. “The difference between you and I?”
Bael's hand bubbles as if boiling until it literally explodes up his forearm like a building being demolished by dynamite and leaves him with a nub of an arm just below his shoulder.
“AAAHHGGH!!!”
“You no longer bear my mark. With that, I've stripped you of your title that you hold so dear and all the power you've obtained throughout your long life. Now that you're nothing... Do you still wish for me to call you king?”
Bael falls to the floor and squirms as his body feels like it is being eaten out from his insides, he screams with all three heads which is making the noise stomach churning.
Ubica turns to his right and sees a demon in the form of a pale old man that is riding a large crocodile three times as large as any on Earth and is holding a hawk in his hand.
“Agares, kill this thing and I will give you control of everything he owns.”
“Yes sir.”
The old man maneuvers his crocodile to Bael and lets the reptile, along with the hawk feast on his body, a bloody mess occurs and the old man smiles thinly as he watches.
Agares, is a Duke and also resides in the eastern zone of Hell, he is being served by 31 legions himself and did not hesitate slaughter a higher ranking demon in order to gain more power.
This is the relentlessness of Hell and its demons, there is no honor code unless you are at the very top. These demons are always waging a constant war with each other to gain more power and will stop at nothing to obtain it.
And all of these ruthless monsters bear the Mark of the Beast, and are standing ready to fight for one man.
That one man sends orders to the many others and the final preparations for the ultimate battle are complete, it is now time to begin the bloodbath.
Ubica throws his mask to the ground and shatters it under his foot, he no longer needs to hold back, his one and only job is to unleash his full power on the allies of Heaven.
A wicked smile forms on his face as the excitement of the moment brews hotly in his body. He pulls out his red diamond katana from its sheath and points it at his opposite standing to his front a few hundred meters away.
His legs move forward slowly in a walk, and the walk turns into a jog, and that jog turns into a run, and that run turns into a fast moving sprint towards his enemies.
This signals the billions behind him to move and the hundreds of millions in front of him to move as well.
Both sides move on Ubica's whim, on a collision course with each other upon his action.
This battle, this war, begins and will end depending on what he does.
Only one person can stand at the threshold of an event on such a scale, and that person is being closely watched through the horrified eyes of a certain princess.
Tucany and Amber stand in silence, he stares at her with an expression on his face that looks to plea for something. And when he tries to speak, Amber quickly looks away to the ground.
Some words have been said, and both of them are troubled by it.
Tuscany bites his lip and turns to the door, he slams it angrily behind him and the ringing aftermath of the sudden bang rings in Amber's ears.
She wipes her eyes and takes a deep breath, when she does this, her vision becomes slightly blurred and all the sudden her head feels heavy.
“Hmm this is weird, it's still early but I feel so drowsy...” She wobbles a little as she takes a couple steps and holds her temple to keep herself balanced. “I guess I'll take a nap until he comes back.”
She slowly heads up the stairs to her room and flops on her bed, the words of Ubica still ring in her head from earlier.
(You are too damn oblivious and you make decisions way too fast! If you actually think about what you do before doing it this kind of thing would never happen.)
From there her thoughts mold into her marriage agreement with Tuscany, perhaps what he said is true and has been applied to what she has done with both him and Ubica so far.
Hiding her face in her pillow she asks herself,
“This is the right decision... Right?”
The sun has almost completely set and the current Ubica is standing on the white sand of the lagoon in wait for the demon who has been tormenting him since he got to this island.
The intense glare on his face that is pointed at the sun dyed sea finally catches sight of something.
Out of the water comes a white and blue dragon, and out of its mouth comes Leviathan, he walks down the steps of water forming under his feet until he reaches land.
“I'm glad you made it.” said Leviathan with a confident smile.
Ubica pulls out his red diamond sword and moves into a battle stance. “I'd never miss this chance to kill you. You said it yourself, this is the end right?”
“Did I say that?”
“Che... I'm tired of all this. Your damn sarcasm pisses me off, it's time I take you out once and for all.”
Leviathan shrugs his shoulders in a way that is almost meant to insult his conversation partner. “If this were the past, I'd take that threat very seriously. But sadly, I truly don't feel you'd stand a chance against me as of now.”
“You think that, but I've been preparing for this day. I'm a lot stronger now than the last time you faced me.”
“Why don't we test that out?”
“Fine then!”
Ubica prepares to charge when he is stopped by the voice of Leviathan, “But not like that.”
“...?”
“You were right, I did say that today we will end this... But I did not mean the battle between you and I.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This little life you've temporarily formed here. It's time I take it from you.” Leviathan holds his hand out and a ball of water the size of a basketball forms above his palm. “Take a look.”
Ubica follows his gesture and looks into the ball that now shows a perfect screen of a certain girl that Ubica has gotten close with over the past couple weeks.
“!?”
Reading Ubica's expression, Leviathan answers, “Earlier today, while you were careless enough to separate from her, I treated that nice girl to a glass of water.”
The smile on his face grows as the look of despair on Ubica's steadily rises as well.
“You know that 70% of the human body is made up of water right?”
“You didn't...”
“As you already understand, I can manipulate water. So if water is used to move the muscles and make the organs function properly, I'd hold complete control of that human life in my hands.”
Ubica's breathing becomes sharp as he watches through the ball of water and sees the girl get up from her bed half asleep and exit her room.
“N-No.”
“You see Ubica, by meeting me here you fell directly into my trap.”
Leviathan moves the ball closer to Ubica as if to rub it in his face.
Through the ball the sight of Amber's parents come into view sitting at the dinner table.
“With you here, and me to stop you, who's going to be at that house to stop her from committing the unthinkable?”
“What in the world is going on?” Amber asks herself as she walks into the kitchen without any control over her body.
She almost thinks this is a dream but it feels far too real to pass it off as something like that, she can feel everything that is happening to her.
Her hands move against her will and she reaches for a wooden knife holder on the kitchen counter. The wooden knife holder holds five knifes ranging from small to large, the knife on the far left is the largest and she grabs that one to pull it out to the open. The knife is well over a foot long and is extremely sharp due to its use to cut through the hard scales and bones of large fish caught out at sea.
Seeing that this surreal moment is actually happening, Amber begins to speak through her dry throat, “M-Mom... Dad...”
She hides the large blade behind her back and walks out into the dining room adjacent to the living room, at the dinner table sits her parents Albert and Melissa.
They each smile at her while Melissa says, “Oh my look who decided to wake up, you've been asleep since we got back.”
“Perfect timing!” Albert says loudly, “I brought home some great leftovers from this fancy restaurant I took your mother to earlier for dinner.”
“You'll really like it.” says the mom gently, “Have a seat.”
Amber walks toward them sketchily and the look on her face signifies a struggle, she is fighting to hold her body back but is failing.
“Mom~” Her voice is becoming harder to push out from the back of her throat. “Dad~”
She takes another step toward them and now she is only a couple feet away from Albert.
He looks up at her and asks, “What's wrong? Are you feeling lonely without your new snuggle bunny!?”
Albert makes a joke out of it like he always does as he wraps his arms around his body and wiggles around in a ridiculous way.
“Oh my don't say something like that, it'll embarrass her.” Melissa said with a smile that shows that she had found what he said to be humorous.
Amber doesn't find his jab at her funny at all, in fact, she didn't even realize what he even said as she has been focusing on trying to hold her own body back.
When all attempts fail, she realizes that what is about to happen is going to result in tragedy without her being able to do anything to stop it.
“Mom... Dad...” she says as her eyes start to water.
Her parents look at her quizzically as she raises the hand holding the large machete like knife above her head in preparation for a downward strike.
Before the inevitable swing she shouts with all her strength,
“RUUUUUNNNN!!”
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