Carmine

“Carmine.”

What was that voice?

“Carmine.”

This voice sounded so familiar.

“Carmine, you are a pest, a disgrace, a burden.”

Darkness resonated everywhere around me. Could it be my sight? Why were my eyes not opening? Who was that?

I willed it and focused on getting it open. A heavy pressure settled on my face and body. Was something preventing me?

I focused and pushed myself more.

“Carmine, you were always a burden!”

Father?

My neck burned. My eyes opened. Coughing up a storm, I quivered at the dreadful emotion that overcame me. I looked around and saw a sea of red.

Prone, I was disgruntled with my current position. What was I doing on the ground and where was I?

Valor, Five, Janilla, not even San Rosa could be seen. Just those deep red clouds morphing and swirling above me; that was all I saw.

My arms fidgeted with heaviness. I moved my fingers and twitched. My breaths were harder to swallow. Like something was invisible in the air, thick and viscous. I stood up.

My feet were on a stone platform. What bothered me was the sublime reach of these clouds.

They could have been an endless pool. Walking off this stone platform was probably not a good idea. The edge of the platform sent a chill riveting up my neck.

No.

It was something closer.

I turned around and saw her. Corona froze. Her hand lowered. It looked like she was planning to touch me, yet she was some distance from me.

I wondered if I should have ran, but where? There was nowhere to go, except down and I was not looking to learn how to fly.

Corona narrowed her eyes at me. “Cockroach, you have become more aware.” Then she smiled. “Hunting you might not be so boring as I thought.”

I scowled at her. “Where is this? What are you doing here? Wher-where are the others?”

She laughed out. When she recovered and it was quickly, she replied. “If you do not know where you are then what makes you feel I would tell you?”

I gritted my teeth and stepped back as she stepped forward.

She said, “You can’t run cockroach.”

I was getting tired of this. “Do I look like a cockroach to you?”

Corona rocked her head as her eyes widened and she glared a vicious deadpan look at me. “You are nothing. You think, because you were a Princess once upon a time that you are a person of worth? You are worse than an insect. Cockroach, is a fitting name for you, a blithe like you. A subpar article, worse than all the animals on this planet, for that, is what humans are.”

“I-I…” I tried to think up a comeback, but my wit was failing me.

“Die cockroach,” she slowly said motioning her hands as if crushing something. My neck constricted and my body convulsed with this tense discomfort.

The clouds blurred as they got denser and more abundant like a bellowing storm.

I jumped back as Corona picked up her pace when she walked toward me.

Her eyes were menacing until they widened. She stopped, then she stepped back and smiled. “You are still alive?”

I was confused, but I inhaled deep and my breathing hitched in fright. My feet kept backstepping then I hit something. I almost turned around, but I heard Five’s voice. “Be still Mother.”

Corona looked shocked, then she laughed. “So she is your new master now? I can see how easily such a useless man as yourself would serve her. I guess cockroaches need each other after all. But this is great I can kill both of you in here!”

I instantly saw that little girl with ponytails appearing out of the shadow of Corona’s back. She waved her arms wide hitting Corona hard in the side of her chest.

The red clouds pulsed and moved faster as a fog sprayed from the epicenter of the attack.

Corona flew off the platform and phased out in mid-air becoming a distant blur.

I dropped to my knees as Five and the girl came up to me. My chest burned and my mind was aching as a level of distortion settled into my mind.

“Is she dead?” I asked.

The little girl with ponytails said, “No. I was only able to push her out of your mind.”

“Mind, what happened?” I asked.

Five appeared before me and kneeled while the little girl stared with no expression.

He grabbed my face. “Wake up.”