Chapter 417 - The Impostor In The Room, Part 4

"Okay, center stage's yours, you're up," another reassuring hand on my shoulder, a gentle squeeze I felt, and Irene's dark hazel eyes were inches from mine. "Go do what you do best."

"Nearly die?" I quipped.

"Proving me wrong," She said, then with a light nudge, sent me on my first step forward.

Focus, determination, intent. I knew what to do, knew it better than before. Emotions. Strong emotions. Hate. Just hate.

Just like with Ash. If I could do to her, then with this Jay… piece of cake.

"You will kill me if you fail, won't you?" Jay-Harry asked, persisting as always with his casual how's-the-weather-tone. "That doesn't sound good for me. It's a shame there's nothing I can do about it."

"You don't look too worried," I remarked, stretching a hand forward.

"Maybe if I knew what that is, I would be. I've been told to be afraid of dying, but I don't even know what being afraid is. I haven't lived long enough to know that."

"But you know dying?"

"No, not that too," He responded, still with a smile. "But it seems as if I will soon."

That was enough from him, I decided. Through my arm, through my skin, in my veins, I felt it flow - that tingling sensation so familiar - I let it trickle, coalesce in my palm, I pulled that invisible muscle, and mustering all effort, my deepest determination, my strongest intent, I channeled it forward.

And I was immediately reciprocated for it.

"AAARGHHH!"

His scream, painful, agonizing, almost seemed to reverberate across the very walls surrounding us. He was flailing, chair legs scraping, nearly collapsing - for once I couldn't see Jay through his expressions, instead all I could see was a man, an innocent, unknowing man… and the pain I was inflicting.

I kept my focus, doubled my efforts. 

It felt a lot easier than my many attempts with Ash. I guess that was given, I'm comparing an Elf-knight against an ordinary man - there was no opposition, nothing to push through, no wall to conquer.

Except… for one.

Sightly, ever slightly, something was pushing. I could feel it, sense it, a presence ever too familiar. 

Jay's.

I needed to subdue it, somehow, I needed to. Assert my will upon it, make it submit. That's all I needed to do.

There was a struggle now, I could feel it fighting back. My magic and his. His will against mine.

He wasn't going to win.

"No! No! Stop! Please stop!" A plea, a shout, anguish suddenly resounding through dribbling tears across his cheek. "What's - ? I don't know, I don't know! IT HURTS!"

I ignored his… its cries. I kept going, my other hand clutching the other, dampening its trembles.

"Why?! The pain! Stop! Stop!" 

So much emotion, in his words, in his struggle. Who, who was asking exactly?

"Please just make it stop!"

I didn't stop. I didn't listen. It was a trick, a ruse, it had to be. I kept going and I wouldn't stop. Nothing was going to make me stop.

"No more…" 

He opened his eyes, he found mine. I stared, I looked, I scoured… but I couldn't find him. 

"You're hurting me…"

The wrong person.

My arms fell limp to my side. I heard myself heave, but I didn't feel myself fall… nevertheless, the swelling pain in my knees, the hard thump on the floorboards, they happened.

Everything else happened too.

I lifted my head upwards, staring wide unblinking eyes straight ahead - to the slumped figure sitting lifelessly, his head falling forward.

Nobody moved, nobody spoke.

Until, quietly, a voice spoke, "Oh, I'm back."

A voice far too normal for comfort.

Slowly the hunched figure stirred back to life, with tear-stained eyes once so human, staring back at me unfeelingly.

"That was shorter than any of the detective's attempts," He continued to speak, drool spilling from his chin. "Did you really even try at all?"

Nothing he said registered. I didn't react, I couldn't react… for right then, rising to my feet, I knew already what was coming.

From the shadows, I heard her approaching.

I whirled around, hands shooting forward, "Wait, not yet, stop, Amelia, don't - !" 

Like a fly, I was sent flying across the room - an effortless swipe of her arm, and I was back onto the floor once again.

"I tire of all this nonsense," Amelia proclaimed irritably, her fingers bent and contorted into a dangerous shape. "Your word is your word, and as you say, he will die, and you will not stop me now."

There were many, many shouts that plunged the entire office into disarray. Mine blending in with some others, but the one I heard the loudest wasn't my own… 

I didn't even blink, and yet I still missed it: Amelia's sharp, jagged inches away from skewering Harry's smiling expression - and Adalia, gripping her arm tightly, restraining it with almost little effort.

"Sister…" She said, pulling it back even more. "You really are… annoying… today…"

"Adalia," the irate Matriarch tried to wriggle free. "Let go. He gave his word, he told me to - "

"Stop…" Adalia said, finally unclenching her sister's arm. "He told you… to stop…"

"You will side with him on this foolishness?"

"He hasn't… given up…" Adalia blinked her eyes once, and when she opened them again, I found them staring back at me. "We… shouldn't too…"

"What's more," Irene spoke, helping me to my feet while glaring disapprovingly at the set of twins. "I don't like you hitting people, and secondly, you really believe I'd just let you bloody my office? Do you think I'd want a murder here, in a police station? Have you gone into a frenzy yourself?!"

"He has failed!" Amelia retorted, throwing me a dirty look. "For all we know, he has only exacerbated matters! What if the parasite had consumed completely? We've no time to spare, have we?!"

"Actually I'm not done fully taking over," Harry stated calmly, apparently oblivious to the heavy tension in the air. "It might still be a while, I'm not too sure myself."

"You could be lying," hissed the vampire.

To that, he took a moment to slant his head at her. "What's lying?"

For once, I was grateful for this Jay's ignorance of everything. If not for that, I didn't think Adalia would have stepped away as easily as she did so just then.

Meanwhile, everybody was having their say, everybody was pouncing on the chance to continue. Except for me, that is, but no more, it was my turn now, I needed a chance to be heard, now more than ever.

"My sister, there's still my sister," I began, speaking across from everyone else, rubbing the pulsating pain across my ribs, and in that pause I took, all eyes at once shifted on me, something I realized only moments after.  "We could… I don't know - maybe, she could do something."

"Your sister?" Amelia scoffed.

"Saman… tha…" Adalia whispered.

"Who?" Harry asked, another droplet of drool staining his shirt.

"No, don't, you're just desperate, listen to yourself," yet Irene was the only one that actually responded, shaking my shoulders as if trying to rattle me back to my senses. "Weren't you the one saying your sister wanted nothing to do with this? Are you really going to drag her into this whole mess?" 

"Yes, I mean no! No, of course not, fuck!" I swiped my hands across my face, senses definitely rattled. "No, but… there's… there's gotta be something, if I don't do something then he's going to, you're going to have to - damn it, you know I can't let that happen!" 

Irene stared at me sympathetically, but could offer no words to alleviate my stress. She knew as much as everybody here what the only outcome would be. 

But, nevertheless, I have to try.

"Sera? Maybe Sera? Huh?" I threw out into the air, only to remember the incident with her the night prior. Will she even be willing to help after the answer I gave her? Could I use this as another bargaining chip? No, no, I can't do her like that. She already fulfilled her end. I couldn't ask for more.

"She's a Speaker, Listener, Necromancer, she deals with the dead," Irene quietly said. "She would only be as effective as you and I." 

"I'll try again, maybe," I said. "This time, I'll get it. This time, I got it." 

"Or perhaps, you whimpering, bumbling fool," Amelia then abruptly interjected, meeting me with a scowl as soon as I turned over. "You should instead leave this problem to someone that will undoubtedly think this matter trivial." 

Long-winded riddled words and my flustered state were not going to go hand and hand, and of course, I barely even was able to grasp what she was saying to me. 

"What?" I asked, taking a bewildered step back. 

She rolled her eyes, stepping well away, apparently thinking me hopeless, leaving it to Adalia to translate her words to simpler, more comprehensible terms.

"Go… ask… your mother…"