106 Having Every Negative Thought You've Thought About Yourself Confirmed Is A Real Relief

Gadiel

May 14, 9:24 pm, Canberra, Australia

Gadiel didn't even wait. He immediately threw an ice spear at the annoying, grinning head.

SHHHWIIIN!

The spear cut through the air. For a moment, it seemed like it would skewer through Ai's head.

Then she disappeared.

"That wasn't very nice of you," said her voice. Gadiel grit his teeth as he imagined her stupid, pouting face.

"Sorry, reflex," he said, looking around. "It seems I have an allergic reaction to kidnappers."

Ai's voice burst into laughter.

"That's the best you can do?" her voice jeered, echoing through the room. "'I'm allergic to kidnappers?' Did you read that in a book somewhere?"

Gadiel's face burned as he tried to recall where he had heard the line before. Was it in a book?

No. Focus. That didn't matter.

He looked back at Tarik, sitting, immobile in the chair. He didn't even look like he was breathing. Gadiel took a step towards him.

And felt his knees give out under him.

He felt sick; his stomach doing back flips while his head pounded dizzyingly. He managed to steady himself against a wall, looking up at Tarik. He noticed that the world was a little fuzzy, and moving. Even though he was standing completely still.

Gadiel put a hand to his head to stop the pounding. He took away his hand to find it wet with sweat. He blinked, and also realized for the first time that he was breathing heavily.

It seemed like the combination of pushing his powers while spinning himself so much had a bigger effect on his body than he realized.

"Awwww, what's the matter?" Ai giggled. "Getting shy after seeing your crush shirtless?"

Gadiel swallowed his anger and looked around, slowly. Not because he wanted to, but because he felt that if he moved his head too fast, his headache would get worse.

The entire eighth floor was a single, large, but dark room. He could see the hole he made in the floor right next to him, but anything further away was difficult to see. The only light source in this room was the monster-chair (as Gadiel was starting to think of it) that held Tarik at the center of the room. It pulsed a glowing, green light that occasionally emitted smaller pulses of green that traveled through the wires in the ceiling and floor. It was by watching those pulses that Gadiel realized that the entire floor and ceiling was wrapped in wires.

"Have I already told you how annoying you are?" Gadiel panted, leaning back against the wall. He suddenly realized from the feeling on his back that it was made of glass. Was this wall a window?

"Cause you're so...annoying," he finished lamely.

"Truly, you are a master of wit and comedy," said Ai dryly, walking out from beside Gadiel. Instantly, Gadiel turned to face her, on guard.

How had she gotten there? Gadiel was certain she hadn't been there a second ago.

"You really think you can do anything against me?" she scoffed. "You, in that pathetic state?"

Instead of answering, Gadiel simply closed his eyes.

A moment later, Ai's expression changed. She immediately moved back, escaping the sudden surge of cold that exploded from Gadiel.

He opened his eyes, to find Ai glaring at him from the other side of the room. He grinned, then turned to Tarik and ran to him.

"No you don't!"

Suddenly, Gadiel felt something grab his legs. He tripped, falling hard on his face.

He looked back, irritation flaring up, drawing his leg back to kick whatever had grabbed him, only to freeze.

His eyes widened as he heard a person moan.

The pulsing green light flashed by, and Gadiel saw a girl around his age, staring up at him with dead eyes. Panicking, he tried to crawl away, only to find that the girl's grip was harder than a vice.

And then his hand brushed against something warm.

Once again, he froze, only to find another girl on the floor, eyes vacant, even after Gadiel had basically grabbed her shoulder.

Slowly, he looked around. With every pulse of green light, he noticed yet another body on the floor, simply lying there, immobile.

"Time to wake up, my puppets!" giggled Ai. "Wake up and kick the Moon out for me, please."

Gadiel watched as hundreds of green-framed silhouettes slowly got up. Their movements were all weirdly erratic, like puppets on strings, being moved from some all seeing puppetmaster above them all.

"Help...us..."

Gadiel looked back down at the girl who was grabbing his leg. For a moment, it looked like her eyes were clear, and full of fear.

The moment passed, and the light went out of her eyes, making her look dead once more.

But that was all Gadiel needed.

He lifted his other leg, and immediately kicked the girl in the face in. Despite that, she didn't let go. He looked to find all the other people slowly coming in, moaning like zombies.

But they weren't zombies.

They were puppets.

And Ai was the puppet master.

Gadiel took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He ignored the moans, the shuffling hands and feet. He ignored the feeling of bodies coming closer, grabbing him, holding him down.

"Alright, that's ENOUGH!"

Cold burst from his body, immediately freezing everyone around him. He let the cold out for a while, wanting to make sure he got everyone.

They weren't real people, after all.

Just puppets made by Ai. After that display of "humanity" that Ai made the girl perform, Gadiel was sure of it.

Gadiel breathed out, his head pounding. He felt weirdly...empty. Like he was hungry, and low on energy, but in a weirdly restless way. His eyes felt itchy, and his muscles slightly sore. Somehow, he knew this was because he had overused his powers. He had a feeling that any more big moves would not be a good idea.

He opened his eyes, to find a landscape of frozen sculptures. As he stood up, the hands and arms grabbing him all cracked and fell off. Their mouths were all open in horror and shock, all staring at Gadiel as if he were some kind of monster.

A twinge of guilt pricked Gadiel's heart, but he suppressed it. There was no point in feeling guilty for killing fake people. It wasn't like these people had lives or anything – they were just toys that Ai had created to stop him.

Like Medi-

Speaking of Ai, where was she? Gadiel looked around, searching for both her and anything else to think about.

Unable to find her, he looked at the only other thing in the room; the big chair, with Tarik sitting in it.

Right!

Gadiel made his way over to Tarik, taking a break every few steps to catch his breath. His head was pounding, and just wouldn't stop. He grit his teeth and moved forward, ignoring it.

He reached the chair and Tarik, and almost collapsed on it. His breathing was heavy and ragged. His throat and mouth felt suddenly dry; what he would do for just a sip of water right now.

Focus.

Gadiel froze the metal clasps on Tarik's arms, and used his new control over his "cold" to break them. Doing so only intensified his headache, but he grit his teeth and did the same with Tarik's leg bindings.

Once he was done with that, he slowly took off the helmet, careful not to hurt Tarik. As soon as the helmet was off, Tarik let out a deep sigh, and crumpled forwards against Gadiel's body.

"I got you," Gadiel whispered. "I got you."

Tarik murmured something French in his sleep, and for a moment, there was nothing but the two of them, alone together in each others' arms.

"Oops, am I interrupting?" said a giggly, feminine voice that seemed to come from everywhere.

Gadiel immediately held on to Tarik, looking around. The pain in his head was getting worse, and the weirdly echoey voice inside didn't help matter.

Wait.

Inside?

"You finally noticed!" said Ai once more. "Honestly, I thought you'd just let me take control for a minute there. Guess that mirror monster really did teach you a thing or two."

That voice was definitely coming from inside Gadiel's head. His eyes widened, as he realized what was happening.

Ai was inside his head.

"I mean, I've been here a while," she giggled. "How do you think I've been invading your dreams?"

"Get out!" Gadiel screamed in his mind. At the same time, he looked around to find a way out.

But for some reason, it was difficult to move.

Sure, his body moved the way he wanted it to, but on a delay. It took a second for his mind and actions to sync up.

"You really should just relax," said Ai. "Just let go and let me live here, rent-free."

Panic set in as Ai giggled at her little joke. Gadiel felt his chest getting tighter; it was getting harder to breathe. He looked around for something, anything. Any way out. He needed to get out of here, away from Ai.

"You can't get away from me," she giggled. "I'm in your head. And boy, do you have some...interesting thoughts in here."

"GET OUT!" Gadiel yelled.

Ai simply giggled. Gadiel grunted, and closed his eyes.

Focus. Just...breathe. Focus on breathing.

Focus on your mind.

"You know, for someone so boring, you really do have a pretty interesting history," said Ai, with the casualness of someone flipping through a book.

"Can't believe someone can be gay and homophobic. That's just sad."

"Shut up," Gadiel muttered.

"Not to mention all these thoughts about whether or not you're a bad person," said Ai, sighing. "You want the answer? You are a bad person. There."

Gadiel ignored her, sweat pouring off his brow. He needed to focus.

Focus on his thoughts.

Now that he was thinking about it, he could kind of feel her in his mind, rummaging around. If he could just catch-

"Good people don't have to try as hard as you to be good," Ai continued, evading Gadiel's weak attempts at catching her. "Being good is easy for good people. It comes naturally, like breathing."

"Tarik is a good person," Ai sighed. "Which is why I want him so bad. Turning someone so pure, so good, into someone evil and broken like me?"

She giggled.

"That sounds fun!"

"Are you just incapable of shutting up?" Gadiel growled. He could feel himself slowly catching up to her, finding her. It was like catching water from the rain with bare, oiled hands.

"But you?" Ai went on, ignoring him.

"Why would I need to try and turn you into a bad person? You already are one."

"Takes one to know one," Gadiel shot back.

"Exactly!" said Ai. "I'm terribly evil. It's just the way I was made. And the same goes for you, Gadiel."

"You're bad. You're broken. Nothing you can do can ever change that."

For some reason, Gadiel felt like something was stabbing him in the chest. He ignored it, gritting his teeth, focusing on trying to catch Ai.

He could feel himself getting closer. He was starting to get flashes of thoughts that weren't his, of pure malice and spite.

"How else can you explain killing a whole room of people without batting an eye?"

Gadiel felt his heart go cold.

"What do you mea-"

"You know exactly what I mean," said Ai. All the lightness in her voice was gone. She was simply stating facts.

"All those puppets? Real people. Real lives," she said. "And you murdered them like you were stepping on ants."

No. She was lying. She was trying to get under his- 

"You know it's true," said Ai. "I can't lie here. You can tell when I'm lying."

For some reason, it was getting harder to breathe. Gadiel fell to his knees, Tarik still in his arms. His lower lip started wobbling, his vision getting blurry.

No. It couldn't be true.

But he knew it was.

He could tell what Ai was thinking. Not enough to read her mind, but definitely enough to know the intention behind her words.

She wasn't lying.

The hundred of people he had just frozen...they had all been real people.

People that Ai had kidnapped, and trapped here with her power.

Gadiel grit his teeth, staring at the floor length window. Occasionally, he could see his reflection, tears flowing over Tarik's prone body. Every time he saw his reflection, he would freeze in terror.

"You're a monster," he whispered.

Ai simply giggled.

"Be honest with yourself," she said. "It felt good to have them all just fall away, didn't it?"

Gadiel didn't say anything.

"It felt good to use your power to kill others, didn't it?"

...

"Face it, Moon-boy," Ai whispered in Gadiel's ear. "You're just as bad as me."

Immediately, Gadiel reached out and grabbed Ai by the throat. She choked, desperately grasping at Gadiel's hand.

"Found you," he muttered, tears still flowing.

Ai couldn't answer as Gadiel lifted her off her feet with one hand. His body felt battered, but he still had enough strength to lift someone as light as Ai.

"If I'm so bad," he growled. "What's stopping me from killing you?"

Ai couldn't answer. Instead, she grinned.

"Do it then," she said in his mind. "And I really will be living in you head for the rest of your miserable life."

Gadiel squeezed harder.

Ai gasped, choking for air, legs kicking as her lips went blue.

And all Gadiel did was watch, as slowly, her kicks got weaker and weaker, until she stopped moving at all.