The Colors And The Deal With Death - Chapter IV: To Greener Grass!

After a moment of silence and shock for the both of us, Poppy starts to calm down and recollect herself, fixing her hair, make up and outfit before getting up.

“I’m sorry, Lizzie. I wish my power could fix this, but this illness is too strong. I’m sorry, but I have lots of other people I have to give the bad news to, and well wishers on my heels for answers I want to find myself. Will you be okay?” Poppy asks, putting her hands on mine.

“Sure. I’ll be fine, really.” I say to her, hoping that my words are the truth.

Poppy smiles weakly at me, before walking out of the door. As she leaves, the other four come rushing in to my side. As much as I hate being the centre of attention, finally having people who rush to my aid is a refreshing sight.

“Lizzie. I heard about what happened. That really must suck.” Nuko says, putting his hand on my arm.

“Well, you’re not wrong. How many people have been affected?” I ask, curious to know why there are so many people outside.

“Quite a lot. I’m estimating roughly about a quarter of the city. I saw them take a bit of your blood while you were resting, so hopefully, they should have a cure ready before you can even walk home.” Roxy says, trying to cheer me up and give me hope.

“Fingers crossed. Hopefully afterwards, we can go find the sleazebag who did this to us, and kick his ass into orbit.” I say, getting angry, but also morbidly excited, not having a one on one fight in a long time.

“This is all my fault. The wine was the cause. The wine I gave you. I’m so sorry.” Andy says, taking my hand and slightly squeezing it.

“Hey, if you were going to not trust anything to drink, you’d live a pretty paranoid and short life.” I say, taking my hand back from him.

“So, what do we do now? I can’t stand all this uncertainty.” Blanche asks, panicking in a state of confusion, like a curious child who lives and breathes gossip.

“We wait for Poppy to get back and finish her job, then the five of us find the man who did this, and shake him down for a way to fix it. Any questions?” Roxy asks, visualising the plan in her head, although I do have a question on my mind. My lips move to form the question but-

“How do we know where this guy is?” Nuko asks, completely interrupting me and making me lose my train of thought.

“Simple. We don’t know where he is right now, but thanks to Andy, we were invited to a party in a couple of days, a little place called Moore Fields in the Capita Midlands. We simply go there and find that guy.” Roxy answers with the confidence and fluidity of a teacher.

“When you said the five of us, you mean...?” I ask, crossing my arms and kicking the sheets off myself, just knowing that she means to leave me behind.

“I’m sorry Lizzie, this might be dangerous. Please, stay here and rest. Your safety is the biggest importance here.” Roxy says, tucking me back into my bed like some child.

After a moment, Poppy comes back into the room, as the outside sounds a lot quieter and seems much more somber. Before a word can be said, all of our phones go off at once. It is from Salvador.

Salvador: “Please come straight to my office, we have much to discuss. My computer has tracked a massive power. I believe this could be a bearer of one of Arc’s rings.”

Everyone puts their phones away, looking at each other with varying levels of excitement.

“You guys go, I still have 20 minutes left here. I’ll catch you up.” Poppy says, opening the door for the others, as they all leave.

Poppy turns back to me, as I start to get up. Even though the pain is definitely growing slowly, I can’t sit idly by while the others more than likely risk their lives. Poppy notices me trying to get myself up, walking back to me and putting me back to bed, much to my annoyance.

“Please Lizzie. I can’t risk you going out in this condition. I- I can’t lose you. Not another one. I’m sorry.” Poppy says, looking a little worried towards me before walking out of the room, closing the door behind her. I guess I’m stuck here, just waiting for them to get back, or death... whichever one comes back first.

After an hour passes, I can feel my mind already starting to fail me. I start seeing black ink tumble down the walls that I knew were once pure white. Trust me to be the one in this situation, and just when things were going too well for me. I know I’m not alone in this, but I was supposed to be the one who helped fix the problem, not succumb to it. After another 30 minutes pass of mind-numbing boredom and sheer cold loneliness, the door starts to open again, but no one seems to be there. I take this as a sign that I shouldn’t give up here, even if it takes double the willpower than normal. Trying to adapt to the pain in my stomach, I start to get used to it, as sad as that seems. I walk out of the room, closing the door behind me.

Trying not to get spotted by any doctors or nurses, I hide behind every corner, and wait until the coast is clear before making a beeline for the stairs, and out of the main doors. As the sweet spring breeze washes over me, I suddenly feel so refreshed. I was only there for 2 hours, yet the antibacterial odour of that hospital was more than my nose could take. As I walk down the streets, it becomes very apparent that I am still in my hospital clothes, which makes my face turn red and flustered. Before I confront the others, I try to think where my costume was put, only to realise something stupid... I was never told where they put it after we got back. Speaking of which, I’m not even sure how we got back up to Watcher Central in the first place. Wanting to get some answers, I run quickly back to my place and change into some regular clothes.

Without a second of hesitation, I make my way towards the mayor’s office, too determined to truly feel the loss of breath in my lungs. Luckily, the others are only just leaving the building. They look at me with shocked expressions on their faces, rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

“Hey guys. So, what’s the plan?” I ask, trying to be as casual as I can.

“Lizzie? What are you doing here? You should really be resting now.” Poppy says, trying not to cry with worry.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve been phasing it out. Besides, we should be a team if we want to find those rings, no matter what. So, anyone got a problem with that?” I ask, looking across their faces. Most of them look worried about me, until...

“Yeah, come on guys. If she says she’s okay, then we might as well believe her. And if she passes out again, we’ll just take her somewhere to rest until this is all over, no real harm done.” Blanche says, giving a tactless, yet decent plan.

“Fine. If you want to come, then I will let it go. I just hope you’re going to be okay.” Poppy says, still worrying about me.

We all walk back together towards the big house, and what I can safely call our main headquarters... even if it does sound like some cheesy Saturday morning cartoon. The air and the atmosphere feels different than before. It is still warm in the air, yet the sun isn’t shining as bright, and the streets are almost abandoned, with only a few people walking around. The music and laughter of children that once echoed throughout the city, are replaced by the comfortless and ominous silence.

When we arrive at the house, Andy runs towards the back of the house, a big grin on his face.

“Wait here guys, I can’t wait to see all your faces. Won’t be 2 seconds.” Andy says, before disappearing behind the house.

Blanche groans softly to herself, likely knowing what he is coming back with.

“Know something we don’t, Blanche?” Roxy asks, curiously nudging her shoulder.

“It’s nothing. He’s coming back with something that our parents left him for when he was old enough for it. Calls it his pride and joy, but I wanted it way more.” Blanche says, sighing to herself as we all wait patiently for him to return.

Those 2 seconds turn into 10 minutes, as each of us grow more and more agitated and impatient, except for Poppy, who is still as giddy as ever.

“What’s he doing? Making whatever the hell he’s bringing?” Nuko asks, kicking little pebbles on the ground out of boredom.

“I don’t know what’s taking him. It should be right there.” Blanche says, visualising the locations in her head, it seems.

After a moment, the revving of an engine is heard from around the corner, louder than a lion’s roar, making us all jump out of our skin. Before we have time to ask any questions, the sound of wheels crawling across tarmac starts to grow, creeping ever closer towards us. A big shiny red and white car slowly comes into view, as Andy sits at the drivers seat, looking at us all from the open window. Everyone looks super impressed with it, especially Roxy. Me? I’m not that interested in cars myself. I always say the bigger and shinier they are, the more they try to distract from something else.

“Wow. This is quite the beaut. Let me guess, the Stallion V500 model, quite a vintage make, dating back to oh say, 30 years ago now.” Roxy says, looking at the car and Andy with a strange twinkle in her eyes, probably in love with being the know-it-all of the group, or maybe just the car. Love is a weird confusing concept to me.

“Exact. And yet, here she is, shining like a diamond and still good to go. We had two extra seats onto it, in case of an unexpected third child, but that never came to be. I put all of our costumes and weapons in the boot, as well as some camping sets and some extra essentials, just in case. I’d say we were ready, wouldn’t you say?” Andy asks us, winking at what seems like Roxy, as she starts to blush.

“Yeah, yeah. When you’re done being a show-off, shall we be off, Romeo?” Blanche asks in a less serious tone as she calls shotgun and takes the passenger seat.

We all start to climb into the car, as Roxy opens up the aisle seat to let someone into the very backseat of the car. They seem to be looking at me to take the place. Sighing under my breath, I start to walk towards the car before being handed a big paper bag by Andy from the window.

“I know I can never imagine what you’re going through right now, but if you feel yourself getting sick, please use this.” Andy says, wanting to keep his precious car safe from me.

“Thanks.” I respond to him, hoping that it won’t get that bad. I mean I think the pain is starting to get a little-

“Bleeeeeeh!”

Fine, maybe the bag was a good call. My morbid curiosity entices me to look inside the bag, but all I see is a strange thick black substance, like oil. Probably shouldn’t have looked into it at all, as I can almost feel it crawling through my veins as I speak, making me feel queasy all over again.

As the car starts to accelerate forward, we go onto the open road, noticing that not many people are around, and come to think of it, I haven’t seen another car on the road since I arrived. Maybe automobiles are just a luxury that only the lucky few can obtain here.

“So what’s the plan again?” Nuko asks, checking out the car from the inside, his head going all over the place, looking over its black leather design and buttons that... serve some kind of purpose, I’m just too out of reach and not comfortable enough to be experimental yet.

“Leave Watcher Central, get to Moore Fields before a couple of days from now, find the guy who poisoned everyone, kick his ass for a cure, bring it back and be heroes.” Andy says, giving the abridged version of the plan, making it sound so simple.

“And if he doesn’t have the cure?” I ask, wondering if we do have a back-up plan in store.

“Then we take the poison back to the hospital and they can reverse engineer and make an experimental treatment.” Poppy says, surprising me by how much she actually knows about medical stuff, despite having the power to heal everyone with her magic hands... almost everyone anyway.

“If they can’t do that... let’s just cross that bridge when we come to it.” Blanche says, trying to think of something to add to the conversation.

Before we can finish our reminder of the plan, we make it to the main entrance, opening the new elevator, made from what looks stronger glass... I hope. There is enough room to fit the car inside the elevator as we feel the mechanism take us down to the world below. We all look out of the window, all with ideas of what the outside world is like.

“Wow, we’re finally going to be able to see the world. This is going to be so amazing. Oh my gosh.” Blanche says, shaking Andy’s arm excitedly.

“Can’t wait to see it all. What do you think it’s like?” Andy asks, likely seeing millions of places he would like to visit from the window.

“It’s pretty nice. Every place feels like a new world, really.” I say, remembering a time not so long ago when the wilderness was my only home.

“It’ll be nice to see it all again. It has been a while.” Poppy says, possibly remembering her hometown.

As we start to approach the bottom of the elevator, the doors start to open again, as a big light starts to grow brighter. Still in the car, we continue driving through the path of dirt, paved between two fields of green grass and little flowers of many colours.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re off.” Andy says, excitedly as everyone else cheers.

Over time, seeing nothing but green for miles on end, our eagerness and excitement to explore and maybe kick some ass, fades to an overwhelming boredom. Poppy fell asleep a little while back, though she did have a pretty rough night. Looking out of the window, I see someone, dressed in a black coat, watching us as we zoom past. I really hope I was just seeing things.

“Are we there yet?” Nuko asks, resting his head against the window, putting all his energy into not drifting off.

“No. For the fifteenth and final time, not yet.” Andy says, starting to get a bit agitated, as we all are.

“Fine, be that way.” Nuko says, turning back around.

Wow, and I thought everyone else was the most buxom of buddies. I guess in a way, none of us really did sign up for all of this. The sooner we find this cure, the better. My stomach is slowly getting worse, and the bag is about half way.

“How about now?” Nuko asks, groaning under his breath as his mouth is muffled a little by the window.

“Sorry guys, I have to make a quick pee break.” Roxy says, dancing a little in her seat.

“What? We just filled up at that petrol station, there was a bathroom there and you said you didn’t need it.” Andy says, looking at Roxy through the rear view mirror.

“Sorry, I had that coffee earlier, and it goes right through me.” Roxy says, going red in the face.

“Now I have to go.” Blanche says, also dancing a little.

“Oh my stars.” Andy says, giving up as he pulls over at the next port-a-potty.

The two girls, including Nuko, climb out of the car, leaving just me, Andy, and a sleeping Poppy. Andy gently rests his head on the wheel.

“Gotta love them, right?” I say to him, trying to lighten the mood as best as I can, though I’m not really fluent at cheering people up.

“Lizzie. I should tell you, I truly am sorry about what I did to you. That wine, I gave it to you without even thinking. It’s my fault you’re... you know.” Andy says, looking back at me.

“Hey, it’s fine. I had no idea either until it was all said and done. So please don’t beat yourself up over it. I mean, we do have a plan, don’t we?” I ask, wanting to set his mind at ease. Something inside me tells me not to trust him, but I’m going to ignore that this time, since I could actually have a male friend, something my father wouldn’t have approved of, that’s for certain.

“True. Alright, well if you ever need a favour, I’m your guy.” Andy says, pointing to himself.

I slightly smile to myself as I respond. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Before long, the others all climb back into the car, and we set off onto the road once again. As we get our energy back after the brief rest, we all find it short-lived, as we all go lethargic again.

“Are we there yet?” Nuko asks, obviously not used to sitting in a car for a long journey.

“For the love of all good things, stop asking.” Andy says, getting annoyed at him, as he takes his eyes off the road for a small second.

In that second, we feel a crash at the front of the car, as a body goes flying over the windscreen. We all scream to ourselves, waking up Poppy in the process.

“What happened? Are we under attack?” Poppy asks in a blind panic, frantically looking around the car.

We all climb out of the car to see a mangled corpse of a man in a blue business coat, laying at the middle of the road. His green rotting skin and missing left eye tells me that he had been dead for a little while.

“Oh my god, I’m going to be sick.” Blanche says, going into hysterics, covering her eyes.

“Come on, it’s just a corpse. Let’s just bury it and be done with it.” I say, eager to get back on the road, and seeing the things I have seen in my life, this almost feels tame.

“You say that like it’s just a walk in the park for you.” Roxy says, getting a little suspicious, like she thinks I’m a murderer or something.

“We’re killers, aren’t we? I knew this was too good to be true, we’re going back to that horrible prison.” Poppy says, starting to freak out.

“No way, I would never survive there. The pretty ones always go first.” Blanche says, starting to sob to herself.

Suddenly, the limbs of the body start to click and move back into place. Blanche lets out a blood-curdling scream of terror, as she hides behind Andy, shivering uncontrollably. The body starts to crawl towards us, whispering in some kind of strange language, like he is talking backwards. All of us start to walk backwards, as I open the car boot and pull out my gun from behind the camping stuff. The body starts to fix his gaze on me, smiling a very creepy smile, with dangling skin on his teeth, and a few of them are missing.

“It’s you. Mistress. Mistress. Mistress.” It chants before crawling quickly towards me.

In my panic, I fire a bullet into its brain, as it once again falls dead to the ground. That’s not something I’ve ever seen before. Everyone gets back into the car, as we drive off as fast as we can.

“What the hell was that? Some kind of prank?” Roxy asks, looking back at it from the back window next to me.

“If it was, I’m not laughing.” Blanche says, shuddering from top to toe.

“Alright, everyone calm down. What we saw wasn’t natural, but it’s gone now. It can’t hurt us anymore.” Andy says, acting like the tough leader, but inside, I’m sure he’s as scared as all of us.

For the next few minutes, we all stay in silence, trying to recollect our thoughts and fully wrap our heads around what just happened. The air goes even more stagnant, even with the windows slightly ajar. As the sun starts to set another day, we are only half way through our journey up to our destination.

“Hey, it’s starting to get a little late. Should we call in for the night somewhere soon? Andy asks, keeping his eye out for a place to disembark.

“Okay. As long as we have time to stop.” I say, keeping my eye on the time I have been given left, like the bleakest timer ever.

“Don’t worry, we still have until tomorrow night to get there.” Roxy says, counting something with her fingers.

As the sun starts to set once again, we finish crossing the long path through the fields of Capita, and come to a small mountain path, where a nice little vantage point stands. We unanimously decide to camp here for the night.

With the incident before still residing in our minds, preparing the tents are a quiet job, each of us too confused or nervous to be the first to bring it back up. Once everything is set up, and we get a small fire going on, we all go off into our little groups. Andy and Nuko either made up, or really hate each other as they take up practice batons and start duelling. Blanche and Roxy are overlooking the balcony, though right now, I can’t really see what they are looking at. I am sitting by myself next to the warm fire, brandishing my pen and paper.

“Happy birthday”

“Two candles, so wild and free,

A perfect family came together and rejoiced.

Through fuzzy eyes of nostalgia,

The warm feelings stuck with the girl forever.

“Four candles, the division sets,

Mummy and Daddy start fighting.

Harlot, heathen, fool, and worse, he said.

His mind was no longer his to control.

Six candles, the terrible news.

Mummy wasn’t coming home.

Daddy and two sisters take control,

The candles were not the girl’s to blow.

Eight candles, the girl grew up,

Dolls and toys put back in the box,

The girl grew Mummy’s burning spirit,

A fire not fit for a world of water.

Ten candles, Daddy lost patience,

Through faith, he wished to shape her.

The sisters were perfect in every way,

So why not her?

Twelve candles, Daddy got angry,

Wanting a life of her own, the girl lives it.

The sisters watch and cackle,

As the divine cleansing began.

Fourteen candles, the demons come.

Leather to the girl’s skin, innocence lost.

Pleasure and pain blur the line,

She’s a demon, she must be punished.

Sixteen candles, the cake stopped coming,

Alone with a diseased mind, the girl sought escape.

She didn’t want to do this anymore.

She needed help, help that never came.

Eighteen candles, the girl had enough,

Daddy plays a risky game, the beast awakens

With clenched hands she did strike Daddy.

Through the cold abyss of night, the demon fled.

Happy birth-“

“Hey, hey, you alright?”

I see Poppy looming over me, her shadow materialising over the page. The paper is suddenly grabbed away from me, the pen smearing across the page. I look across and see Poppy looking at the paper.

“Oooh, what you working on? I didn’t know you did poetry.” Poppy says, starting to read the piece of paper.

“Poppy, no!” I protest, taking back the piece of paper from her, but it looks like it is too late.

Her hands still grab for the piece of paper, her eyes unblinking and her hands still as stone.

“Poppy? You alright?” I ask, waving my hand in front of her expressionless face.

“Wow... that’s deep. Where did you come up with this stuff? Do you know that girl or something?” Poppy asks, blissfully unaware of the truth. I want to be annoyed, but I actually envy her naivety and childlike innocence.

I can see Poppy think more about it, before looking back at me. I feign a smile for her, but it looks like the gears in her mind are starting to click.

“That girl. That wouldn’t be...” Poppy asks, wanting to ask the question, but is nervous to do so.

“...Yeah. I was often alone with my thoughts, poetry was really all I had to vent my frustrations on. I longed for death, but I was always scared of it, and I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction. This was my only outlet, my escape.” I say, feeling my eyes well up, as hard as I try to fight it back.

“My word. I am so sorry, I- I didn’t know.” Poppy says, hanging her head in shame.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve lived with it for as long as I can remember. I’m a demon, that’s what he always called me.” I say, as the memories start screaming back at me, making me clench my fists.

“No you’re not. Sure, I only just met you, but you’re you. You’ve been through hell and back and you’re still you. You’re not the demon, he is.” Poppy says, edging closer to slowly wrap her arms around me.

Her words are like a breath of fresh air to me, but if only she knew exactly what the villains in my head were like.

“Thank you. Just being able to talk about it is a big load off my mind. When I left, I dreamt that one day I would be able to do my poetry for a living, writing about something positive about myself for once, and actually have it be true.” I say, still making it my long term goal.

“And it’ll happen one day. I have faith that it will.” Poppy says, before patting me on the back a little tougher than normal.

I arch my back in a bit of pain, as my stomach acts in kind. The scars of yesterday and the aches of today playing in perfect symphony is enough to make me scream out in pain. Poppy puts her hands on her mouth.

“Oh my god. I’m sorry.” Poppy says, not knowing what to do with her hands.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know. My back is still a little sore even after all these years. Say, with your hands, how fresh does the cut have to be for you to heal it?” I ask her, finding an opportunity to get rid of a few scars. Though I look around and notice that everyone is looking at me after that scream.

“The fresher the better, though I can only heal external injuries, and older wounds may take longer, much longer. Scars may never truly go away, but I can ease the pain from them.” Poppy says, looking at her hands, playing with her ring.

The plan sounds good enough for me, though it’s best to try and fix it after I can save myself from this slow death somehow.

After a short while, everyone comes back together, and go into their own tents, drifting off to sleep, one by one. I slowly drift off myself, but I am constantly waken by someone snoring like a mountain bear. After trying to ignore it, it just gets louder, joined by a slightly quieter snore. Losing my tiredness, I step out of my tent, and go over to the balcony, a small leaning post overlooking a sea of lights in the horizon, the moon shining ever brightly in the sky, shining over Watcher Central, as I can still see it from here. Thinking about it, I went there as a last resort, but ended up with a much higher purpose than I could ever dream... even if it means helping the very being that drove my father to obsession in the first place. I suppose I’ll know for sure once I find this ring. Though I really hope it wasn’t given to my father’s side of the family.

Looking up at the moon, I start to feel a little more at peace, getting a little sleepy again. Writing that poem and getting my frustrations out, albeit a lot tamer than what I normally put, I can go to bed with a clear mind. I go back towards my tent, ready to retire for the-

Snap!

A twig breaks from behind me. I turn around sharply to slightly see someone watching me through the bushes. It notices that I’m watching it before running into the nearby patch of trees. The figure looks a little similar to the one I saw from my dream, and when we first arrived in Capita. Wanting to know who the hell is following me, I give chase into the woods.