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Authors: Alicia Howell

Star Rebellion (9 page)

BOOK: Star Rebellion
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              “Nothing can stop my flames,” he repeated, “for I am the first and only son of Lucifer.” He let out a cruel, wicked laugh and my heart started racing in my chest. If Darkstar and I had an issue fighting this dude… how powerful was Lucifer himself?

              So of course my smart ass side kicked in cause on the inside, I was panicking… MAJOR! “So… Son-Of-Satan, your dad must’ve really not wanted a son since he didn’t give you a proper name. I think I’ll just call you S.O.S.” I felt a smirk cross my face at this really petty, and quite stupid, joke. Plus I had to use a different name for Lucifer else the name wouldn’t have been funny. I really was slipping on my jokes.

              S.O.S stepped forward. When he spoke, his voice was low and deadly. “Satan is a disgraceful name for my father, and do you really think you should be making jokes at me when I have your friend by the
neck
?” He shook Darkstar as if I couldn’t already see him. “Plus, I do have a name,” S.O.S’s voice returned to normal as a small, malicious smile lit his face. “You see, my father is really fond of shadows, and of course death, so he named me after his favorite things, Deathshadow,” he said this proudly with his head held high.

              I had to try really hard, and I mean
really
hard, to not laugh. “Lucifer seriously named you
Deathshadow
?” I couldn’t resist laughing that time and Deathshadow frowned.

              “This isn’t going as I planned…” He seemed a bit put out and his grip on Darkstar loosened. Man did this weird dude have mood swings. “If you must know, I made up that name. I thought it would be freaking awesome, but apparently not.” He shot a glare at me and my uncontrolled giggles. “My real name is Vladimir.”

              My giggles abruptly came to a halt as he looked up. Why was he being honest with me?

              “What?” Vladimir-Deathshadow-S.O.S-whatever-the-hell-his-name-was asked in surprise.

              “Why are you being honest with me?” I asked, thoroughly confused of why I had actually said what I was thinking. Maybe this cavern had an honest charm or something. I doubt it though.

              “It’s a long story,” he said uncomfortably.

              “Well I’m obviously not going anywhere,” I said while rolling my eyes. I think the heat was starting to get to me; he still hadn’t freed me from these damn flames. I had backed up into the center to avoid it as much as possible, but it really wasn’t helping much. They were wicked hot.

              Vladimir shrugged and walked over to the vent. He laid Dark on the floor more-or-less gently, then sat with his back resting against the mound. “Then I guess I’ll start at the beginning.”

FIRESTAR

              “Holy hell,” I said at the same time that Forest whistled. The Hell-issued vehicle was amazing. The wheels had shiny metal spikes on each of the four tires, the entire car was painted pitch black and the seats were aligned in a horizontal row. The width of the car was two feet at most and the length was about fifteen feet. The frame of the car was like a jeep’s; metal pipes and windowless, no roof either. From what I could tell the engine was top-of-the-line Calsh made, so for all you Earth readers, it was better than anything you could imagine.

              Behind me I heard Sunstar saying, “Guys and their cars.” I’d bet you almost anything she was shaking her head.

              Icestar ignored her and smiled. “I’m thinking about calling this baby Cerberus 99.”

              “Cerberus?” We all turned toward Forest as his light voice spoke up. “Isn’t that the three headed dog that guards the Underworld Gates?”

              Icestar looked a little shocked, “Uh yea, I think so.” Foreststar just nodded his head.

              We all flinched as we heard the not-so-distant clap of thunder. The garage shook with the force of the sound waves. “Shall we get this show on the road?” I asked in an oddly calm voice.

WATERSTAR

              “Take a seat, you’ll be here for a while,” Vladimir said while the flames around me disappeared. I slid down the partially scorched wall that was directly behind me. I was still trying to keep my distance from him. I couldn’t understand how he went from evil maniac to remorse fallen angel within seconds. I was seriously considering that he might be the origin of bipolar.

              Vladimir took a deep breath. “I guess I should start at the beginning, though I’m still wondering why I’m telling you this. You’re the first person to ever hear this story. This first part I only know because Lucifer has shown me the past. Seventeen years ago, my father had risen from the depths of Hell to find a mate… or well, more so a human woman to bear his child. Anyways, he had searched the world, making women endure torturous treatments, trying to find one who could survive it. Finally, he found her. After she had unwilling proved that she was strong enough, Lucifer impregnated her. Eight months went by where the child in her womb caused her pain and agony. She was completely shunned by every society. Not even a mere animal would come near her.

              “Then… she died.” Vladimir’s voice choked up and I felt compelled to comfort him. Of course, I didn’t, though I did mentally slap myself.

              “Lucifer had been carefully watching my mom… so when she had… passed, he had returned to Earth.” Vladimir looked down at his hands, his voice growing even softer. I could sympathize with him a little. I had never known either of my parents, and I knew how tough that could be. It was almost as if I could see everything that had happened, as if Vladimir was showing it to me, just as Lucifer had showed him. Maybe I should reconsider the comforting thing....

              “And he did something completely vulgar, that even to this day I won’t forgive. I’d rather have died with my mother then this to happen, but nonetheless, it can’t be helped. H-he had collected my mom’s body and brought her down here, with me still in her womb. When they arrived here, Lucifer had one of his trusted demons posses her, which started her heart again, even though her soul was already on its way to who knows where.

              “The demon was in her body for three weeks. She would go to the surface and play the helpless pregnant woman, using her dark magic so that no one realized that she was a demon, and anyone who tried to ‘help’ her was eaten. On the fourth week I was born, and the demon finally left my mother’s body since it wasn’t… needed, anymore.” Vladimir stopped talking.

              His head was in his hands and I could faintly hear his breath coming quicker, as if he was crying. Something inside my heart broke; I slowly stood up, not sure of what I was exactly planning on doing. After standing awkwardly for a moment, I looked over at Darkstar on the other side of the room. Pretty damn unconscious, but I could see the movement of his chest with regular breaths. But hey, that means he isn’t dead. On silent feet, I walked over to Vladimir; I wasn’t sure what would happen if I went over to Darkstar right now. I sat next to him and put my hand on his back in what I hoped was a comforting way. I’m not exactly good at this type of thing.

              Vladimir’s head jerked up in surprise and I felt my cheeks flush with color. “Uh, sorry,” I said as I slid away from him. He shrugged and looked at his hands again, which were back in his lap.

              “It’s alright; I guess I’m just not use to being around other people.” I saw him look at me from the corner of his eye.

              Vladimir coughed as if to clear his throat. “After I was born I was given to some humans on the surface. They were nice to me, and obviously didn’t know what I was.” He paused, a small smile lightly laying on his lips and his eyes softened a bit. “I was raised as a normal human, with a few differences. About once a month my father would send demons to check up on me. Those nights were the worst of my life. They would gag my mouth with shadows so I couldn’t scream; I’d be voiceless for days afterwards. Then they would take their time checking on me, taking growth measurements and testing abilities, making everything as painful as possible. A few times they gave me different types of food that had come from Hell and would set me free on the town. One time, when I was only four years old, something they had given me had made me go on a mass killing spree. In one hour, I had killed fifty-seven people of all ages. But the worst one was when I had killed…killed…m-my…” Vladimir curled up into a fetal position and started crying. I felt my own tears prick at the corner of my eyes too.

              I slid back to him and put my arms around him and murmured soothing things that meant absolutely nothing. He kept moaning and talking about the blood and the faces of his victims as he killed them. I had no clue how to deal with this and yea, this probably sounds lame, but I just sat there and stroked his hair and rubbed his back like I had seen people do in Earth movies when someone was in pain like this.

              When he finally calmed down, Vladimir slid out of my arms and stood up. He walked around for a bit, and all the while he avoided looking at me. I could almost physically see him building up barriers around himself as he would try to wipe the tears from his eyes without me noticing. Emphasis on try, it was quite noticeable. Slowly though, I could see the shift from the honest Vladimir back to the one who had existed before the story.

              When he finally made a full circle of the room he looked down at where Darkstar was laying. Okay, yea I did momentarily forget about one of my best friends, and yea, I did feel
really
bad about it, but there was a lot of other stuff to try and deal with…kind of.

              Vladimir’s voice was laced with ice. “I’d say that I am sorry for hurting your friend, but I’ve moved past emotion at this point. It’s only the memories that plague me, they are my only weakness.” I looked at Vladimir and I felt my jaw drop. He did
not
just say what I think he did. I stood up and debated kicking the crap out of him or checking on Darkstar.

              Some things were more important than being pissed. “Freaking butt munch!” I shouted at him before running over to Dark. I quickly checked his injuries, my fingers lightly flitting across all of his bones. Nothing was broken, but he was burned in quite a few places, his neck was badly bruised, and he had a couple of cuts that had stopped oozing blood. His self-healing had already kicked in. He was going to be pissed when he awakened, but he wouldn’t be dead.

              “Sorry again about the lack of emotion, it’s been drilled out of me.”

              I rose while spinning in a circle, facing Vladimir with my fists raised. Or at least, that’s what I had planned on doing. As I had stood up, my head felt like it was swimming in circles and fuzzy grey dots clouded my vision. I felt my body start falling but even now I don’t remembered hitting the ground.

              FIRESTAR

              I shouted and stuck my arms in the air after we had left Rebellion property. Riding in Cerberus was amazing, even though my arms had been smashed back inside the car from the wind force.

              “Firestar! Shut up!” Sunstar tried looking behind us to see if any of the look outs had noticed my shout, but utterly failed because of the design of the car.

              “This is just bad ass!” I said into my headset, keeping my voice a bit lower now. We were currently in Cerberus 99 going at one-hundred-twenty miles per hour with no windows. I had wanted to stay sitting up straight but Icestar had forced us all to lay back in the recline-able seats so that skin didn’t go flying off our faces. I can see how that would be preferable.

              “Why do you get to drive?” I asked Ice, who was still sitting upright.
He
got to see what it looked like going this fast.

              “Because I made this baby, plus my helmet is specifically designed for
me
.” His voice was a little muffled by the helmet, well more so harness. It was made to protect his face and torso from the wind and I’d bet almost anything that it was totally tricked out.

              “Firestar, give it a rest and shut up.” Foreststar shouted from the very back of the car. The only reason we could hear him was because of the prototype headphones Icestar was working on, so he didn't really need to shout. They hadn’t been connected to Arctic’s personal headset yet ‘cause all the bugs weren’t worked out, which gave me a slight bit of worry.

              I ended up grumbling into my own headset and settled on looking at the sky; which was currently blackened by clouds. I slipped into a vision, seeing a sheet of silver coming down from the sky like a vengeful deity getting payback.

              “Hey Ice?” I said with hesitation in my voice.

              “Hmm?”

              “What would happen if it started raining?”

              “Well, considering this
is
Calsh, we’d be soaked in seconds probably….”

              “Why are you asking?” Sunstar asked from behind me. “Because not only would we be soaked, but we would also have acid rain on us due to the excess pollution Calsh receives from Earth, and severity of this storm will depend on if the acid in the rain could harm us or not, but it more than likely will, therefore, you should have told us sooner that it would rain so we could have just avoided all of this.”

BOOK: Star Rebellion
4.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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