Marisol barely registered what was happening. One moment, she was on solid ground, and the next, Mephisto had thrown her over his shoulder like a sack of grain, leaping effortlessly across the rooftops. The world blurred past her, lights flickered in the distance. The distant hum of sirens grew sharper, and the cool night air bit against her skin.
Her front teeth buzzing with every breath. Each time they bound across the rooftops her stomach churned and bubbled, the contents of dinner fighting there way to the surface.
Her mother was dead.
Ryan and Emma were dead.
Here she was the captive of those with the who did the deed.
The pressure in her chest built like a tightening vise. Her vision blurred, her fingers curling into her palms as her pulse pounded in her ears.
I can't breathe...
Mephisto landed on a ledge, adjusting her in his grip as if she weighed nothing.
"Breathe through it my little seed," he said leaping again for the next roof top. "You'll pass out if you don't."
But she couldn't breathe. The anxiety squeezed around her like a bomb, ready to explode, her body trembling against his.
And then, something inside her snapped.
A pulse, raw and instinctive, surged through her veins. Without thinking, she lashed out.
A tremor crackled and popped through the rooftop, like rice crispies. Then a wave of shadows, erupted from the cracks, twisting in wild, frantic arcs. One struck toward Mephisto's throat. Another lashed at his wrist, thorned tendrils glinting like fangs. The rooftop groaned beneath their force, fragments of concrete breaking loose in dusted chunks.
Mephisto barely reacted, just flicked a wrist, batting them aside like insects. But the sheer mass of the wave, was enough to loosen his grip.
(And then she was falling.)
Her scream cut through the night as the ground rushed toward her.
Marisol felt the wind tear past her, her stomach plunging as the street below rushed up to meet her. Then, the falling stopped. She opened her eyes, trapped in the very roots that had killed her mother. The world spinning for a second before Eri's face came into focus.
"Let me go!" Marisol struggled, but the roots tightened around her, pinning her in place. "I don't want this! You...you're a murderer!"
Eri sighed, adjusting her grip so Marisol was forced to look at her. Her hands crossed, but her expression was almost… patient.
"Appreciate what I've done for you," Eri said, her tone soft but unyielding. "You're free now."
Marisol's stomach twisted violently. "I never wanted this!"
She shoved at Eri's roots, but the other girl didn't let go. Not until she had properly lowered her to the floor of the ground.
Mephisto landed gracefully beside them on the pavement, dusting himself off. "That's offly high and mighty of you." His voice was bored, unimpressed. "If we hadn't shown up, I wonder what absolute atrocities we would of seen?"
Marisol paused.
Her mind raced, her thoughts tangling into knots.
What was I going to do?
She had no answer.
Mephisto's smirk sharpened. "Exactly. You're no better than us, little seed." His grin spreading ear to ear with glee as he leaned in. "A monster."
Time around her slowed for a brief second, the distant hum of traffic below stretching into an indistinct roar. The streets of Whittier's, its sleeping strip malls blurring together. The dim glow of streetlights casting long shadows across the quiet neighborhoods.
"A monster?," Her fingers twitched at her sides, nails biting into her palms. She tried to shake her head, to deny it, but the words wouldn't come.
Instead, her mind began to reel back. Replaying the images she had been too afraid to process.
Her mother's sharp voice, her impatience now silent forever. Emma's sneering face, Ryan's laughter, replaced by something red in that moment, what did Eri want her to do in that moment... what was she going to do.
a sickening realization crawled over her chest.
Not this Eri.
Her Eri.
The stuffed bunny was still there, ripped apart on her bedroom floor, button eyes lost in the dark. She would never hold it again, she would never hold the last gift from her father again.
Emma's sneer, Ryan's grip, and the tearing sound as fabric split. "End them," the broken bunny had whispered through her tears.
"Don't let them hurt us anymore."
She had left behind the only piece of comfort she had ever trusted.
"No… no, this isn't real."
She stumbled back a step, her foot slipping on the gritty gravel. The night air pressed down on her, cool and crisp in the way only a winters nights could be. Her pulse pounded, her vision narrowing as the truth suffocated her.
Eri sighed, the sound almost tender, almost pitying."Why are you fighting this?"
Marisol whipped her head up, eyes wild. "Because I didn't want this!" she screamed, her voice raw. "I...I never wanted this!"
Eri simply smiled. "And yet, here you are."
Marisol shook. Her shoulders trembled as she scanned the parking lot, searching for a way out. A way back.
Could she fix this?
Could she go back?
David would listen. He had to.
Aiden would help. They were cops afterall, they would see the truth.
Wouldn't they?
She turned, staring at the quiet houses stretching endlessly below them, the distant red-and-blue flashes of police lights growing brighter.
"It's too late," Eri whispered.
Marisol shuddered, her breath hitching. No. That wasn't true. It couldn't be.
"You're lying," she croaked.
Mephisto laughed softly, shaking his head. "Oh, little one… you know shes not. Just accept what she had done for you."
The fight left marisols eyes.
Her body had betrayed her.
The truth had already rooted itself inside her, deep in the pit of her stomach. She just hadn't wanted to see it.
She wasn't supposed to be here.
She wasn't a murderer like them.
Or was she?
she looked at Mephisto, then Eri.
Eri's crimson eyes gleamed, filled with something close to understanding.
"Come with us," Mephisto said again, quieter this time. "Grow in the sunlight of the real world."
Marisol hesitated.
The wind rustled through the palm trees lining the streets below, carrying the distant wail of sirens.
Her mind whispered:
"They'll never believe you."
"They'll hunt you."
"They'll call you a monster."
Her fingers twitched at her sides.
Slowly, hesitantly, she reached forward.
Mephisto's hand was warm when she took it.
Mephisto grinned, tugging her forward. "That's more like it."
Eri's smirk was softer. "Now, let's get you somewhere safe."
And with that, the three of them vanished into the night.