Chapter 150
Sapphyra
Why are all these civilians rushing to help me? Why am I still so weak that I have to rely on them to help me?
Get it together, hero. Cyran City needs you at your best!
The weight of the monolith started to lighten out of nowhere. I paused but kept my grip strong and steady. I’m not sure why the situation is getting better but it’s giving me the edge I need.
Pushing the monolith’s hand up, I manage to push its entire body up at an angle.
That’s when I realize…I don’t really have a plan for this thing other than lifting it off of the city’s back. I could try and push it into space but what was that thing the cute civilian man said?
Does it have a pilot? The monolith isn’t a plane or a car, it’s a blight on humanity. I failed to stop it once but I won’t fail this time. I’m sure he was mistaken, he really should leave the hero work to the professionals.
And yet…what if he wasn’t?
It couldn’t hurt to look, at least.
If I time it right, I’ll deliver a rocket punch so hard into this thing that it might stay up long enough for me to look for any signs of a “pilot”.
Here’s hoping that the hottie wasn’t lying.
I split it into six ends and coiled up my tail into a massive ball, mimicking a fist. Then I rotated my hip, kissed my knuckle, pulled my arm back and put all of my power into one blow. The colossal orange monolith flew back from the force of my punch.
One fourth of its body, the eastern side, was missing. Like someone had ripped its arms and a chunk of torso off on that side. Who the heck did that?
The seconds ticked by as I searched its body for anything out of the ordinary. I stopped when I came across a young woman with mahogany skin and long dreads neatly pulled behind her back. She was dressed like a doctor and her nametag said Anais Pharr.
She was tucked just under the monolith’s chin. Eyes closed, floating in suspended animation.
“Ma’am?” I tried waking her up by calling out to her. “Ms.Pharr?”
“Nobody calls me that. Especially not my little sister.”
She raised her head and opened her eyes with a small smile.
“Sister?” I glanced around, just confirming that we were the only two around. “I don’t see—”
“Really Sarah? You're gonna act like you don’t recognize me?” She smirked but my hand balled into a fist. Fiery anger spread up my arms and I couldn’t stop the words spilling from my mouth.
“You know I hate that name.” Why do I hate that name? It’s not my name. It’s just a dumb name!
Right?
“I know you do, baby.” Ms.Pharr frowned, and it made me…ache? Why am I aching for a woman I don’t even know?
I cleared my throat, coughing lightly into my fist.
“Ahem. How long have you been a…um, pilot for this monolith?” I needed to get control of the situation again.
“Can’t really remember anything past the day I went to find you. About a hundred years ago now, I think.” She softly hums to herself, a familiar low pitched song that hurts my heart. My eyes twitch and burn like something wants to be set free.
“Stop it. Stop humming that song.” Head tilted to the side, I grit my teeth. I’m fighting demons I can’t see.
“Sapph…Sapph you love this song. I used to sing it to you when I braided your hair, remember?” She kept humming this cursed song and soon my vision began to blur. I was crying. Wait…why was I crying?!
No matter how many times I wiped the tears away, they wouldn’t stop flowing. They weren’t my tears, I didn’t know this person. So who did they belong to?
“Stop it! Damn you, I said—”
My body moved too fast. My hands were already wrapped around her throat, applying light pressure.
That civilian…he said to knock them out. I don’t kill people, that’s my number one rule so why am I…?
What the hell is wrong with me?!
“Oh goddess!” I roared and fought every bone in my body until I regained control and ripped my hands away from her throat.
Flames licked the corner of my mouth as I battled with something in the pit of my stomach, heavy and insistent. It demanded blood, her blood.
But that wasn’t me…that’s not any hero that I’ve ever been.
“You. Who are you, really? Why do I want to kill you?”
I reached up and wiped away another tear.
“Why does being near you make me so sad?” I whispered.
She opened her mouth to speak but before she could get the words out, something sharp pierced through her chest. The tip of a blade, old and jagged with thin green vines wrapped around it. It held the kind of design intended to cause pain coming in and going out.
“NO!”
The woman calling herself my sister, cried out as blood and oil squirted out onto me.
I ran and caught her body with my arms, holding her close to me. One touch and a flood of emotions began to drown me. Love, joy, peace, sadness…all from just brushing a dread behind her ear.
My bottom lip trembled and I hissed towards the person standing before me. I didn’t recognize him but something about him filled me with raw hatred on sight—not including killing an innocent woman.
“You weep for a robot? I should have known, considering who you’re married to.”
A man dressed in a sort of sleek and softly glowing techno-medieval knight’s armor walked in front of me. The same jagged blade hummed and glowed in his hands. Just being near him made me sway a little. I had to place her on a solid surface and steady myself.
“The head of the monolith might have been gone but this woman shouldn’t have had to die to do it.”
“Silence, beast. I should have killed you that day in Hawaii. Instead, I let your mother and that rat she married protect you for far too long.”
He spread his arms out wide, like the true villain he presented himself to be.
“But look where we are now! No laws. No family to hide behind, little girl.”
Oh god. No.
“It’s just you and me now!” He flicked the blood and oil off of his blade and pointed it at me.
I took a shaky step back, suddenly forgetting how to breathe properly. Every instinct in me screamed to run.
“What’s the matter?” He started walking slowly towards me, menacingly laughing low in his throat.
“Don’t be afraid now. Daddy’s home.”
He swung his blade for my throat and all I could do was close my eyes and wait for the end.
But it didn’t come.