Chapter 24: Letting go of What Held Him Back

Kairas took a step forward. Left palm planted firmly in his right fist, he threw his arms ahead of his small body, black ice rushing up from the soil in a massive size. Myra leapt back into the trees, then jumped just high enough for the ice to barely miss. Kairas rushed up the blackness, running his fingers along his footing. A handle popped out, and upon gripping it, he drew a sword of black ice.

It came so easily to him, as if he had done it multiple times before already. Myra watched him with fondness. She was proud, so very proud of how much of a genius Kairas was when it came to battle.

She sped forward, and the two clashed. Myra broke Kairas' blade of ice as if it were no more than wet paper, watching as the boy fell back and landed with a thud in the soil. She leapt off the fading ice, kneeling next to him and helping him stand.

"Amazing. You already know how to use your power so well."

"Yeah," He nodded, confused. His eyes glanced at his hands, then around. There was a pocket in his thoughts. A spot that had information he felt he was supposed to know, to remember, but nothing came to him. "Mom, I feel like I'm forgetting something important."

"Oh yeah," She asked. "What? Did you do your homework?"

"Yes."

"We just ate, and you did all your chores. What could you be forgetting?"

"I don't know," He said in a distant tone. "... I just.. I feel like it's going to make Takabi sad if I don't remember."

"You will in time. Come, bathtime. You smell mister."

Kairas felt his mind haze. Before he realized it, he was already in bed, Myra at the side tucking him in tightly. The blanket felt a bit suffocating, yet warm and comforting. The only issue was the lack of someone in the bed with him. He and Takabi always shared a bed, so it was odd that he, nor his father or Shine, were home.

Where are they, He thought.

"Mom, where is everyone?"

"Not sure. They should've been here by now." She looked at her watch, then the clock on the nightstand. Both were blank. Kairas raised an eyebrow, pulling his arms free of the blanket and sitting up.

"What's the matter, honey?"

"Mom, this doesn't feel right."

Her faint smile faded. She spoke sternly, a mood Kairas doesn't remember her having. It scared him, truthfully. "I feel like I shouldn't be here. At home."

She took a deep breath, before standing. "Go to sleep. We'll talk about this in the morning." Myra turned on her heel, strolling towards the door.

Kairas removed the blanket and stood up. "I'm going to find them."

She stopped, and faced him, violet eyes glowing brightly with anger. Faster than his mind could register, her fingers were around and digging into his throat. Air stopped entering his lungs as she held him in the air. "You DARE defy your mother?!"

"N...No," He choked up in a strained voice. "I… Just… Want my… Brother…"

As he looked down, gazing into Myra's eyes, he noticed a lack of love. There was spite. Pure anger and hatred for the boy. The way she looked at him now was a complete contrast to how he knew her before.

Before she was taken away.

Before Girston.

It came back, all at once, to the point his head felt as if it was going to split in two. His brain burned with purpose, with the reason he exists and was alive now. Once it settled, that this creature before him was not his mother, that it was all an illusion, green electricity surged around him. The fake's mouth went agap as he released the surge of power. She flew back, striking the wall and crumbling to the floor.

Kairas landed on his feet, slowly aging back to his normal self as he stood up right. His fingers rubbed his throat, and he spoke in a hoarse tone. "I don't know what this is, and I don't care. Take me back."

Her shoulders rose and fell in a chuckle. The voice grew vastly deeper as she unnaturally stood, and Kairas was flashed with a twisted smile. "What's the matter, Mama's boy? Stay awhile. After all, you've got no business anywhere else."

Kairas narrowed his eyes. "My friends need help. Get out of my way, or suffer the consequences for pissing me off."

"Edgy," The fake commented. "Ya know, children like you are interesting. To be so dependent on your mother. I never got that about humans." She walked around, the fake Myra rubbing her throat and adjusting her voice to what it was previously. The feminine tone that soothed him as a child, only served to agitate Kairas now. "It's kinda fucked up now, thinking about it. Those humans tend to develop romantic attachments."

"You're sick," He spat.

"No, I just like fun. For example, I took a little peek into your head." The shape began to change. She became shorter and skin tone a faint bit lighter. Her eyes altered from violet to brown, and freckles faintly danced across her face. The bust deflated a bit, as well as her hips, but the face she took had Kairas taking heavy breaths.

"This girl, right? What's her name?"

"Jewel," He answered, not in response to the question.

When he approached her, for a moment, he forgot all once more, and the world slowly was altering to match that. It wasn't until everything went black, that he transformed, skin turning pure white and hair lashing out to his lower back. As the skin around his glowing green eyes cracked, he ran his hand clean through the fake's chest.

Stunned, the fake coughed up blood on his shoulder, gripping his arm and uttering, "But… You shouldn't… Have the strength to do such a thing…"

"You know nothing about me," He growled bitterly. "I'm not going to allow myself to be tied down by my childhood or my feelings." He twisted his arm, pulling back and ripping the fake's heart clean from its chest.

He walked past and released his transformation, dropping the heart on the black floor and said, "I'm going to see my goal through without fail, no matter who gets in my way. That man," He paused, Girston's face running through his mind. "That man deserves no less than a painful death."

Then he was gone. The fake dropped to its knees, face down and began to decompose at a rapid rate. The only remnants of the illusionary world, a single image on a nightstand.

Kairas, and a picture of Myra at the fair. The frame around the image cracked, and ice quickly swallowed it whole.