The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Ten: Alec

“Stop it!” I screamed. “Let go of her!” I thrashed against myrestraints, all traces of calm vanished.

Then she removed her hands and Alia stopped screaming.

“Alia!” I yelled at her, “Alia, are you okay?!”

No response. Alia stared straight ahead, her eyes glazed over,unseeing.

“What did you do to her?” I choked out, my voice rough.

She didn’t answer me.

Suddenly Alia crumpled in her chair beside me, whimpering.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” A sob wrenched out of her,tears streaming down her face. “I should have saved you I’m so sorry.”

I screamed her name, over and over. Nothing.

“What are you doing to her?!” I yelled at the blonde.

Her gaze broke from Alia and turned towards me. Her eyes brightand burning, maniacal. “Nothing that she hasn’t already felt for herself.”

She laughed, low and creepily. “My power allows me access to yourbrain, more specifically her brain at the moment.” She walked back in front ofmy sister. “I can feel everything that she feels, all of her fears,insecurities, worries, regrets, hatred, all of it. I take it and twist it.” Shelaughed again. “I can make her see whatever I want and I use those feelings, play with them, to get insider and breakher. It’s quite fun actually.”

My stomach heaved and my body lurched forward with a spasm.“You’re a monster,” I ground out.

“I only enhance what’s already there,” she said. “For instance,did you know that your dear sister here carries a significant amount of guiltabout your parents’ deaths? She feels she should’ve been there to help them,but hadn’t been able to get there fast enough”

I shook my head, trying to tune her words out.

“Oh yes, she not only blames herself but that’s why she joined theacademy in the first place.” She made several tsk sounds. “It’s burning in hermind, a flaming white hot ball of anger, self-loathing, and a need forredemption. She joined the academy to make sure she never fails her loved onesagain. She’s never told a soul. Not even you.Her very own brother, her beloved twin.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to be anywhere but here, listeningto her telling me everything about Alia that she would never tell me herself.

“Doesn’t it hurt Alec?” Her footsteps made their way to stand infront of me. I squeezed my eyes tighter. “Although,” she said, “I do supposethat you deserve it. After all, where were you when she needed you? Where wereyou when our dear little Alia spent years blaming herself for something thatwas out of her control? When she almost went mad from the guilt? Where were youAlec? She needed you and you left her.”

“NO!” The word ripped out of me, savage and raw. I didn’t want tobelieve any of it, I couldn’t. This wasn’t true. This was a lie. She was lying.

My eyes snapped open to gaze into hers.

“You’re lying.” My voice was thick, holding back all the emotionsthat were threatening to spill out.

“Am not.” She simply stated. “Want to know something else? Want toknow what your sister really fears?”

“Leave her alone!” I jerked against the chair and yelled.

“Let’s go ahead and replace out.” The monster walked back in front ofAlia and looked into her eyes that were currently slicked over, devoid of allemotion.

Alia started jerking around in her seat, hands twitching as shetried to move them. Her breathing was rapid, a sheen of sweat appeared over herskin. Like she was in the middle of a battle.

“Megan, go over and help Sabin!” Her voice was commanding, incontrol. “They’re over the other side of this hill, if we can get around behindthem we have them. You have to go and help-” Her voice was cut short as herback slammed into the seat and a yell left her, like she’d been hit bysomething. She jerked back forward, straining against the chair.

“No, dammit! Megan, Sabin, it’s Tyrone! You have to go!” Herbreathing was rapid, her voice anxious. She slammed back against the chairagain. “Just hang on!” she yelled. “I’m coming!” Her voice was angry now.“Tyrone! TYRONE!” She was practically spitting. “Leave them alone!” Her voicecracked as she screamed, “NO! Look over here! Stop it!” Then she jerked herarms so violently that the left restraint holding her wrist flew off. Her handflew forward and the blonde slammed violently against the back wall. Aliatwisted her hand and the blonde was flying through the air, slamming again intothe wall beside me. I heard a sickening crunch as she slammed into the wall.“Sabin, move!”

Alia was still under, still living out this nightmare, despite thefact that the blonde was on the floor beside me screaming and cursing.

“Megan, Sabin, move! He’s going to-” Her whole body slammedbackwards with such force that her chair fell backwards. “NO!” she screamed hervoice cracking, my heart breaking. “No.” Her voice softer, tears dripping downher cheeks.

The blonde was on her feet now, right arm hanging by her side atan odd angle, bone sticking out at the elbow. She was still cursing as she madeher way back towards Alia. Her hair was falling, breathing ragged, and lookingthoroughly pissed off, but still with the insane gleam in her eyes.

“Tyrone!” she spat the name, and winced. “Get in here!”

The door slammed open and Tyrone strode in. “What?” His deep voicecarried a bored tone as he crossed his arms.

“Get her upright and restrain that arm, I’m not finished withher.”

He looked at her arm, saw the bone protruding and the blooddripping from her fingertips onto the floor.

“Yeah, and what about that?” She looked at it, then quickly lookedaway.

“I’ll get it fixed in a minute, I need to finish with her.”

Tyrone came behind Alia and lifted the seat roughly up. He thengrabbed her left arm and slammed it down onto the chair and wound a thickleather strap around her forearm.

“That’ll be all,” she said, voice clipped. “We’re not quitefinished here.”

As she stood in front of Alia and held her arm to her side, asneer made its way onto her face. Alia started thrashing in her seat.

“Alec, RUN!” Alia screamed hoarsely. I felt as if a railroad spikehad been slammed through my heart at the mention of my name. “GO! You have togo right now! I’ll hold them off!” Her voice was panicked. “No, No, ALECLOOKOUT!”

Alia jerked hard to the right, almost tipping her seat over againbefore suddenly becoming still.

“Alec,” she whispered,her voice coming out fragile and broken. A gasping sob ripped out of her,“Alec, NO. Wake up! Alec! Please!” Another sob wracked her body. “Please.” Hervoice cracked, thick with tears. “Please, you can’t leave me.”

I blinked, trying to clear my eyes. Hot tears were burning down mycheeks unbidden. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but it was killingme to see her like this.

I’m sosorry, Alia. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

I looked over at my sister. Sobbing, sweat soaked, body shaking asshe cried.

“Stop,” I said, my voice cracking, pleading. “Please, just leaveher alone.”

“Finally seen enough?” The blonde smirked down at me.

“Just stop.” I suddenly felt the railroad spike start to burn hotwith rage. She couldn’t keep doing this to Alia. Channeling that anger into myvoice, I said: “Stop doing this to her!”

“Fine.” She shrugged her shoulders and turned to walk out of theroom. As she reached the door, Alia slumped forward, unconscious, tears stilltrailing down her cheeks.

“You’re next,” she said, those familiar dark blue eyes flashingmenacingly, and walked out of the room, door slamming shut behind her.

I looked over at Alia, her eyes were still closed, and her bodylimp.

“Alia,” I said urgently, “Alia I need you to wake up!” She stirreda little. “Alia!” I yelled her name and she jerked upright, a loud gasp comingfrom her as she woke up.

“What-” she looked around bewildered, then her eyes met mine andsomething inside me broke. Her eyes, still wet with tears, had the look ofabsolute heartbreak. They were broken, the life drained out of them. Then theywidened in alarm.

“Alec? You-You’re dead.” The tears were back, her voice broken.“Everyone is dead. I couldn’t save them.” Her face morphed into one of murder.“You died! You-You just stopped, you stopped fighting! And I-” her voice broke,“I couldn’t save you and everyone else. I was weak!”

I searched for something to say, anything. My mouth opened andclosed.

“I wished for death,” her voice was quiet, choked, and far away.“When I saw you laying there I wanted to die too.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “But at the same time, Iknew I didn’t deserve it.” She turned her head to look at me, her face set witha firm resolution. “I deserved to live with the guilt and pain. It was myreward,” bitterness had edged into her voice, “My pat on the back for what agreat job I’d done.” Her eyes met mine with a flash of remorse.

“I failed you, Alec. I deserve every miserable second of life thatI have left.”

“Alia,” I choked out. “You’re not, I’m not-” I struggled to replacethe words. She believed all of it had been real. I had to convince herotherwise.

“Alia listen to me,” Icould feel the urgency edging into my voice. “You do not deserve this. I am not dead.”

A look of confusion and anger crossed her face and she opened hermouth to say something, but I cut her off.

“Listen to me, I need you to trust me, ok? It’s very important.”She nodded, the pain still present in her eyes. “None of what you think justhappened is real. I am not dead. We are in a konna facility, we’ve beencaptured.”

Her expression changed to one of bewilderment. “Wha…”

“I need you to trust me and do exactly what I tell you, ok?”Another nod. “There is a girl here who can get into your head and put imagesand experiences into your mind that arenot real.” I leaned as close to Alia as I could, boring my eyes into hers,trying to make her understand. “Alia, I need you to remember. Remember whywe’re here.”

She shook her head, “I’m trying, I… there’s nothing there. We werefighting and everyone...” Pain flashed across her face. “Everyone died. Thatwasn’t real?”

“No,” I exhaled hard, we were getting somewhere. “Try Alia, pleasetry and remember. We are on a mission with Sabin and Megan, you were on watchand I came with you to investigate an energy surge we felt near camp. We foughtwith some of the konna and got captured.”

“Megan…” Alia questioned, “Megan O’Carroll? I remember her.”

“Yes Alia, Megan O’Carroll, we grew up with her.” Relief seepedthrough my body, she was remembering.

“There is a woman who will be back soon and she’s going to do thesame thing to me that she just did to you. When she does I need you to sitthere and be quiet. It’s going to look like she’s hurting me, and I might saysome things that don’t make sense, but I need you to just not do anything, ok?”

“Okay, Alec,” she said quickly, her tone reluctant. “I trust you.”

A wry twisted smile made its way onto my face. She wouldn’t besaying that if she could remember everything else that had gone on today.

The door slammed back open and the blonde made her way in. Her armwas in a cast and bound tightly to her side. Her hair was fixed and she lookeda lot less rumpled than when she left. She was back in control.

Her boots clicked against the floor as she walked to my chair. Sheleaned down and put her mouth close to my ear, her fingers trailing down mycheek.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” Her breath was hot and harsh. Sheplaced her good hand against the side of my face and leaned her foreheadagainst mine.

“Alec, what is she doing?” I faintly hear Alia ask.

I gritted my teeth, I was not going to give her the satisfactionof screaming.

“Stop it!” I hear Alia yell. “Stop you’re hurting him!”

My brain was melting. It was like a white hot knife was cleavingit in half, melting it as it pushed deep into my brain. Everything was black, Icould feel myself sweating, fighting against the pain. It was building, gettinghotter. I couldn’t fight it. I felt a yell rip from my body and then nothing.

I opened my eyes slowly to see... where was I?

“I can’t believe you!” I gasped as the wind rushed out of me. “Youdisappear for months and then come back and just expect me to be fine with it?”

Everything came into focus. I was in a house, Megan was standingin front of me, hands planted on her hips and fire in her eyes. She lookedolder somehow. Her hair was shorter than I ever remember it being, barelyreaching the length of her chin. Her face was harder too, and her eyes didn’tcarry the childlike light that had always been there, even when she was angry.Which she definitely was now.

“Wh… what?” I stuttered, not knowing what was going on, exceptthat Megan was pissed and I’d done something wrong.

“What do you mean ‘what’?!” she exploded, her hands flying intothe air before one pointed at me. “You are a good-for-nothing, useless,selfish, jerk, Alec! That’s what!”

“Megan,” I pleaded, needing to make the situation better, “I’m sosorry, I don’t-”

“You know what? I can’t be around you anymore!” Megan said asstomped towards the door, grabbing a jacket and a suitcase sitting next to it.

I grabbed her arm. I had to stop her from leaving. “Megan please!Just...”

“Get your hands off me!” Her eyes were wild, scared. Scared of me.“I never want to see you again!” She whirled around and slammed the door,leaving me.

I reached for the door, hands shaking, “Megan, I… I’m sorry.”

Everything went black.

“This has got to stop man.” A deep voice echoed into myconsciousness. “You’re getting out of control!”

Sabin stood before me, finger pointing in accusation a smashedbottle lying on the kitchen floor. He looked older too. His face looked like ithadn’t been shaved in a few days, and his longer than usual hair was pulledinto a bun at the back of his head. But where Megan had looked pissed enough toshoot me, Sabin just looked… exhausted.

“Every night you go out,” he was saying, his voice a deadly sortof calm. “And every night I get called out to clean up your messes! I’m sickand tired of it!”

My eyes were wide, apologetic, “I’m sorry! I’ve been trying to dobetter, please...”

The words were spilling out of me, even though I wasn’t sure ofwhat I meant by them.

“Do you even know what you did last night?” His eyes were shootingdaggers at me. I stared blankly back. “No! Of course you don’t!” Sabin pacedaround in front of me, fuming. “You got so drunk that you set the bar on fire!They had to evacuate everyone in the bar and the surrounding blocks until youfinally passed out!”

“The building burned to the ground, there are five people in thehospital with burn injuries! We’re lucky no one was killed. Do you know whatkind of strings I had to pull to keep them from locking you up or putting youin an institution!?”

My face burned and my head pounded with shame for something Icouldn’t even remember doing.

“Listen Alec,” Sabin came to a stop in front of me, his voicesoftening just the slightest. “I’ve tried to help you and I’ve done everythingin my power to get you out of this,” he motioned to the bottle and to me,“whatever you’re in.”

He took a breath to compose himself.

“Look, I know your life has been hell since Megan walked out onyou and even before that with Alia…” Pain flashed across his face. He stopped,not able to continue that sentence.

Alia? I thought. What had happened to her? I wanted to ask, but Sabincontinued to talk before I could.

“I can’t do it anymore, man.”

Sabin reached out and dropped a set of keys into my hand. “I’mgoing to replace my own place, and you need to figure out what the hell you’redoing with your life. You’re on your own from here on out.” He walked out ofthe kitchen and I heard a door slam. He was gone.

Black engulfed me.

I heard explosions all around me, felt the impacts in my chest.Light came to me in violent sunbursts of orange and yellow.

I jerked my head up. I was lying in the dirt. I sucked in a breathand immediately choked on the dust in the air. All around me was fighting.Swords clanking together, sounds of collisions, people using their powers. Itwas chaos. It was battle.

I stood up quickly as a pair of fighters approached me yelling.

“Alec! Alia needs you over on the eastern flank! She’s holding offtwo konna platoons but she needs help!” They sprinted away towards a group offighters in the north. I took off, flying across the broken ground. Hurtlingthe fallen, pushing aside those who tried to land a blow as I passed by them.

The oxygen burned in my lungs, my body was fire. As I got closer Icould hear the fighting and feel the tremors in the ground from Alia’s power.As I topped the hill I could see where Alia was fighting. She was the eye, thefixed point in a dark crackling storm of countless Konna soldiers. They werefalling on top of each other, failing to keep their balance on the shiftingground. A small part of me, for a brief second, was captured in awe at the rawforce of nature Alia was. Something she’d told me was mirrored in my ownfighting. The thoughts melted away and were swiftly replaced by the quicklyrising battle fever in my system. I faltered a step when a blast wave of darkenergy tore through the field in front of me, and watched in shock as Tyronestepped out from the tree line, sprinting towards my sister, dark energysparking and roiling over his arms and hands. Alia never saw him coming.

“No, NO!” I screamed, still too far away. Too far.

“ALIA!” I shouted as loud as I could, desperate to get herattention as I pushed my legs the fastest they’d ever gone. I threw my handsout and a solid wave of wind with them, but I wasn’t in range.

No, no,no.

My breath was ragged and my chest heaving.

Please,please, please. Not her. Please.

Tyrone saw me coming and his eyes narrowed and with deadly precisionthrew out a beam of dark energy at me. As I rolled to the side and sprang backup, a shout on my lips. I watched as he sent a blast directly at Alia who wasstill holding off what was left of the konna group that had her encircled.

With a deep primal yell, Tyrone thrust both hands in front of himand unleashed a blast that rendered the whole field black for a split second,and then with an ear shattering boom collapsed down into a spear of black thathit Alia straight in the chest.

My feet carried me forward again, working against the numbnessseeping through my chest.

Alia was knocked backwards, tumbling and limp over the ground. Theother konna soldiers were rushing to Tyrone, who had fallen on a knee anddidn’t appear to be moving.

The numbness spread further, grazing my fingertips and freezing mymind.

A few moments later I skidded to a stop and fell to my kneesbeside Alia. She was lying on her side, facing away from me. I gently grabbedher shoulder to roll her onto her back, and froze when I saw her face. She wasalmost unrecognizable. Her usually tan skin was ghostly pale. No hint of colorwas on her pale cheeks. Dark circles lay under her closed eyes. I quickly dropped my ear to her chest,straining to hear a heart beat, to hear anything.

Come on,come on. Please Alia.

I moved my fingers to her neck, and as I felt the resoundingabsence of movement the numbness burned away and in its wake left a deepagonizing burn in my chest.

“Als,” I whispered. Still she lay there, unmoving. As I bent overand pressed my forehead to hers the words poured out, unchecked and desperate.“Don’t leave me. Please, please!” A broken sob ripped out of my chest, “Don’tgo! Please!”

I rocked back on my heels and screamed at the sky, hot tearsburning down my face and dripping off my thighs.

“Please.” My voice cracked. “Don’t leave me, Alia.”

I dropped my chin to my chest as my eyes slid shut. The desperateburning in my chest evaporated, and was replaced with a different cold thatburned deeper and harsher, sucking the life out of my bones. It seeped out frommy heart and into the deepest corners of my being. My body shuddered with asob, and I gave in to the feelings threatening to engulf me. My sister was deadand I couldn’t save her.

Alia wasdead.

I was alone.

The black returned, and stayed this time. I was tired, so tired.Tired and ashamed. I was a horrible person, I’d done unspeakable things thathad left me alone in the world. Everyone I cared about pushed away by my ownstupid actions.

Stupid,Alec. You’re an idiot. An idiot who is all alone in the world. I wanted to curl up and die. I couldn’t bear what I’d done, whatI’d become. I couldn’t bear to be by myself. I succumbed to the blackness. Letmy mind go blank, let it engulf me as I numbed myself to the thoughts,emotions, the pain.

I don’t know how long I stayed there, in the black abyss. Minutes,days, years. But something jolted me out of it. Someone was yelling. I crumpledinside. No again, please no more, I can’tbear anymore. I have no one left to lose.

Someone was yelling my name, I could hear it, and someone wasyelling that they wanted me to wake up, yelling my name repeatedly. I felt likeI was underwater, all the sounds coming through were muffled and quiet.

“Alec!” I heard the voice say, a little louder.

“Alec, listen to me!” louder again.

“Alec Lachlan Parker wake up right now!” My eyes snapped open, thevoice commanding me to consciousness.

The voice yelling at me was to my right, but the face I saw whenmy eyes snapped open was one that I recognized. She had short blonde hair, anda muscular build, and a scar running across her left temple. Why was she here?I hadn’t seen her since we were kids. The look in her eyes caused my gut totwist, something was wrong, she wasn’t right. I looked beside me to see Alia,restrained in a metal chair. Burns running across her stomach and wrists, ablack eye, cuts everywhere. Something was wrong. I looked down and saw that Iwas in a chair just like hers. What was going on?

“Alec it’s not real! It’s not real!” She yelled at me urgently.

“Gag her,” the woman in front of me said.

A man walked in, he had a powerful build and protruding musclesrippling under his dark skin.

“No!” Alia screamed at him.

Why was she here? How was she here? I had just seen her die. Whatwas happening?

“Alec it’s not real, we’ve been...” the man’s hand cracked acrossAlia’s face, her lips busted and blood flowed down her chin.

Shock made its way across my face. Why’d he hit her?

“We’ve been capture by the konna, it’s not real! Snap outof-hrmph-” she was cut off as the man wedged a nasty looking towel between herteeth and secured it behind her head.

It’s not real?

What did she mean?

I looked back into the eyes of the woman sitting in front of me,they were a dark blue, cold and menacing, gazing into mine with an intensitythat made me want to flinch. I squinted my eyes and looked closer, I did knowher, and something inside of me that was screaming wrong when I looked at her. My head felt like it was filled withstatic fuzz, like something was missing. Then it hit me.

Who she was. Her name.

BrittanyO’Carroll.

The blonde.

My head cleared and I remembered.

This was Megan’s sister, who I hadn’t seen in seven years.

She was a leader of the konna.

She wasn’t letting us out of here alive.