Jessie clenches his fist, her bubble expands, she tries to touch her shadow but her hands are too far away.
"You will never take her, she won't come with you. I believe in her." Lucy shouts.
The voice of Lucy calms Jessie's down. She gets emotional as she hears her friend still believing in her.
"My bestie, my angel. She is the strongest. I will not give up, I will trust in her too."
"Kill him!" She shouts.
Lucy smirks. "Can you see it now, it doesn't matter what you do to me, as long as I am alive Jessie will never succumb to darkness, you need to kill me for that but I know even your conscience won't allow that, that's why you are using these cheap tricks, you are nothing just a liar."
He snaps back, constantly drilling into her body like a sewing machine. "I am not a liar, I am not a liar, I am not a liar." is all he is saying,
His voice muffles up, he feels genuinely hurt. "Why would you call me that? It hurts, you know. It hurts more than getting a knife wound in your chest."
Lucy gets confused, she tries to find the weakness of him, her scream gets louder and louder.
"Ahh!"
"NAAH!"
"ARGH!"
"Help! Help us! Call the police, there's a monster here." She screams so hard that she starts coughing blood.
The man stops the drilling, he slaps himself on both of his cheeks.
"Sorry for that show, My outer beast gets out of control sometimes." he giggles.
"Now, what was I planning?" He taps his foot on the ground. "Oh, yeah. I remember it now."
"How cute. And foolish at the same time, haven't you realized it yet."
He laughs holding his stomach. "Ahhahhahaha!!!"
"No one is coming to save you, calling for help is futile, just stay nice and low, if you don't want to get hurt."
He resumes the drilling of her body, sometimes legs, sometimes chest, sometimes arms and sometimes shoulders, making sure she doesn't die and also increasing or decreasing the intensity of the pain he is giving to her just on a whim.
The door swings open. "You are back already?.....what's that?..... Is it food?..... Go on ahead, I will be joining you soon.....fine by me.... but first close the door.
Lucy is confused, she looks at him with eyes of curiosity. "What's the deal with this guy? Who is he talking to? what door?, there's no door here, we are in fucking park"
He chuckles. "Oh no no, it's just my assistant. "
She fears the worst "What the hell? Can he hear my thoughts too? Does he have two gifts?"
He smirks again. "You took your time."
She asks him, "Does that mean you knew all the things I was planning."
"Yes." He replies.
"You are stronger than I thought, others would have given up by now."
"Earlier you said, you are not a bad guy, you want to fix the world, what do you mean by that?" She asks him thinking it will buy her more time.
He pats her head. "Buying time, eh. Well I will tell you everything but wait a second."
He moves the branches holding Jessie to make a blindfold.
Jessie shouts. "Oiii! You son of a beach. Put this down, let me watch you die." Her heart aches as she says that.
"Crap, My heart feels like somebody put it under hydraulic press."
"Heartache after swearing, one of the downsides of our gifts." He explains.
"Now we can continue, I will tell you everything and at the same time drill into you, your soul will never be able to forget this experience."
"Why is he blinding Jessie? Does he not want her to see me suffer? I can't get him at all."
"Oh nah nahh! Your screams will be enough and this much better. And to your previous questions, let's begin with the answers."
He keeps on drilling, making her scream again and again and again.
Her mind activates and deactivates whenever the branch gets in and out. Her voice shuts down, breathing feels like choking on stones.
"My organisation name is The Plight, it's a very recent and small organisation for now with only ten members. Our goal is to preserve this hope that the almighty has given us."
Lucy coughs up blood and asks "Then why take her, take me instead, I have the gift of light which is known as a symbol of hope, I will be much more useful to you. What's even the point of taking her?"
He drills into her belly button, makes her vomit her blood.
"We don't want to work all our lives maintaining the hope, we just want to end the despair inside people's heart, that's where your friend Jessie helps, she will be the catalyst for all the darkness inside people heart, we will make her absorb it all until she becomes the vessel of demon everyone's waiting for."
Lucy's bubble expands all the way to the sky, Her body gets surrounded by the aura of light.
"Then what?" She asks, still keeping her calm, waiting for his answer that will decide their fate.
"Then we will kill the demon and only then eternal peace will be achieved."
He laughs sinisterly. "Oh don't be mad, I will make sure, Jessie is written as a hero in history, who sacrificed herself for the greater good."
her light gets more violent as she gets more angry, his answer didn't please her, now he has to witness her wrath.
She clenches her fist, tightens her muscles to break the branches, some fall apart while some decay and stay.
"Do you think I will let you or anyone harm her, she is not something to be sacrificed. The world will have to walk over my grave."
Jessie's agony starts again, however she doesn't scream out loud, she tolerates the unbearable pain she is having, her eyes tear up, her nose starts running but she still puts all her hopes in Lucy.
"It fucking hurts, it hurts. I feel like dying. My brain is about to go numb. I can't ... What's even going on?"
She scratches her palm deeply to keep her awake.
The man covers Lucy in more branches, basically making her mummified. Her light slowly dims.
"That was scary. I gave you an answer and you got mad, not very light of you."
He takes a step back, his eyes widen as he realises what's going on.
"It feels hot. Don't tell me she can use her powers even without a source of light."
"Magnificent! Brilliant! I didn't expect this from you, Lucy Navarro. It's so unfortunate that the world is like this."
He wipes his tears of happiness away, intensifying the pain for Lucy. but it doesn't stop her, instead just makes her more angry and powerful.
"You..."
"Calm down my angel. That doesn't suit you."
A voice inside Lucy, sounding exactly like her, calls her out.
"You need to know who you are, you are Lucy Navarro, daughter of Diwa Navarro and Liam Navarro. Born to be an angel. These devilish acts don't suit you."
The light calms down, Lucy enters her mind, completely zoning out from the real world.
"Who are you? How do you know my parents name?"
"You should know who I am already."
"You are me, my subconscious. Ugh–I don't have time to talk to myself, I need to go save Jessie."
"Why save her? wouldn't it be better to let her go for the sake of eternal peace."
Lucy gets mad hearing those words.
"What did you just say? you want me to give up on Jessie. You can't be me, I will never do that. I will never hurt my friend."
"Jessie is not your only friend, what about others?"
The voice gets louder and louder per second, so loud that it crushes Lucy's voice.
"What about your family? Do you want them to stay in a world where clouds of despair always block the light of hope? no right."
"But…." Lucy tries to fight that voice but she can't even hear her own thoughts anymore, something deeper has entered into her.
"Listen to me Lucy, I am you, I am your soul. Only I know what's best for you and Jessie too, Right now you should just relax and let go of her. It's all for her sake."
"It's all for her sake." She murmurs.
Lucy completely relaxes, her mind fully numb, her body doesn't twitch at all no matter how much he pierces her. Only thing that is happening is that her eyes
are bawling out like a waterfall.
The man looks stunned. "Did I go overboard? What made her so calm all of a sudden?"
His expression changes again into a twisted smile. "Well whatever, It seems it worked, I can feel Jessie's rage crawling all over me."
It's been five minutes Jessie hasn't heard a single thing that comes out of Lucy's mouth, she is blind folded and unable to make contact with her shadow feeling useless and enraged.
She yells. "Jessie!!! DID YOU WIN?"
No response comes, Jessie's voice reaches Lucy's but she has already given up.
He looks at her, "It's over already, your friend has given up, I advise you, you should too."
Jessie falls from the tree, her eyes instantly land on where Lucy is hanging then on the man behind all of it.
She screams "Lucy! Hey, say something, do something, anything. Please….. please don't leave me all alone. Who am I going to look up to if you give up on me."
Lucy, physically can hear everything Jessie's saying, her pleas, her cries, yet her body doesn't respond. Not only body but her mind and even soul has been put to a halt.
The man sends a vine at Jessie without any intention to harm her. "Looks like I have to use some force, I am so tired of you two." He scratches his head.
"Just stay as it is, I will be nice I promise."
She "I cannot accept it, you are not dead, you didn't give up, it's just you lose and it's fine. It's your first loss after all."
She laughs like a maniac, then suddenly her rage erupts. Her bubble doesn't even get a chance to extend, her shadow directly blocks that branch without being in direct contact with her.
"What? You still want to fight. I know you are angry and it's valid but you should respect her wishes." He tries to enter Jessie's mind with his Voice of Access but she doesn't respond at all.
"Stubborn brat."
Her Shadow swirls around her generating massive hot winds, temperature rising up to 5000°C.
"I Will kill him, I will kill him for you Lucy, then you can have your light back" Her heart feels intense pain as she says those words, those words penetrate deep into her soul, she doesn't give a damn now. She wants only him even if it means to let darkness take over her.
He sends another set of branches at her and all of them get vaporised by the heat. He looks surprised, afraid and yet happy.
He runs here and there just to dodge her strikes. "One strike and I will be dead. I should not let my guard down."
"How is this possible? The shadows are supposed to be cold and their force should be non-existent, however not only are her shadows hot as the surface as the sun but they are generating force like a category 2 hurricane."
"This is it, that's what I want, Jessie Mendoza!! Who even are you?" He yells out loud.
The tree where he left her hanging gets caught in her burning shadow, everything of that tree completely turns into dust in just a mere seconds.
He feels nothing but fear seeing her current condition and that tree makes it worse.
"Crap, he is about to come out. I should go. My plan has already been sowed, there shouldn't be any problem."
He snickers and stabs himself to prevent the takeover. "What am I saying? I already have a problem. I need to calm her down. But how. I can't even reach her."
Lucy coughs reflexively, Jessie's shadow calms down hearing that cough.
"Oh it's her. I will let her go. So calm down." He slowly frees Lucy, politely placing her on the ground.
"Yes, here's your friend."
Jessie's shadow finally settles down. She is tired, her nose is bleeding and can't stand up so she starts crawling towards her.
"This is my opportunity. Just this amount will be enough." He sends a branch thin like a syringe, piercing her neck.
"Finally, it worked. Her shadows are vanishing. Lucy you actually saved your friend. You should be proud. Now if we meet again. sayonara."
He salutes and left the area as soon as he could.
Jessie, after 45 seconds of crawling, arrives near her. She stands up but instantly falls near her.
"I will join you." Her muffle voice comes out as she brushes Lucy's hair.
Both fall into a deep sleep in the park open to everybody.