Post by Publicist on Sept 18, 2017 13:26:52 GMT -5
CHAPTER XXX: THE GHOST OF MEMORIES END… (PART 3)
DOWNTOWN
Lower Eastside, Empire City
Arella was in a panic as the mob bore down on her, hurling rocks, bottles, and whatever else they could find. The screamed for her blood…
“META SCUM!”
“MONGREL!”
“PIECE OF SHIT TERRORIST!”
As she ran into a dead end, she turned to face them, she tried to reach out with her power to control them...her eyes shaded over casting her into blindness, but her powers only worked on those with power. She screamed as a bottle smashed against the side of her head, knocking her to the ground.
“SHE’S DOWN!! KILL HER!! KILL THAT FILTHY META BITCH!!”
They closed in, ready to kill the girl…ready to do as they would to one who was not of their kind. Suddenly a massive gust of wind blew in, knocking many off their feet. They covered their eyes, expecting a hovercar to land, but instead Hexx descended, landing not so gracefully on tattered wings.
‘The Angel of Empire City’ struck and imposing figure as her wings fanned out, covering the width of the alley, her body was stained with blood from her battle with the police, and her hair hung over her face like a wet veil. Her voice as gravel as she spoke in a malevolent tone. “Do not touch my daughter!”
The mob suddenly confused, unsure of what was happening as Hexx walked towards them. Those few that saw her eyes through her twisted black mane knew that her thoughts were elsewhere…knew that death was coming for them…
THE FAR DISTANT PAST
The Wastelands…
Sometimes, to do what’s right, we must give up the things we want the most…
To Anka…that seemed a perverse joke…all the same, the truth that lay beneath it could not be denied. Superius, deemed a murdering Roman dog and made a symbol of all that she hated most was her white whale. She had pursued him relentlessly as he waged wars against the ‘heathen’ peoples who rejected the right of Rome to expand throughout the known world. How many people had he killed in the name of the dream that was Rome? She didn’t know, but she had seen so much death and slaughter that it no longer affected her, as it affected others…
…until a most unlikely turn…
Anka had never been as close as she had come on this day…never had a chance that was so perfect. His guards would strike her down, but not before she looked the devil in the eye and spit…running him through with his own sword. She’d watch him die a slow and painful death…perhaps even as his legions sought to do the same to her. It didn’t matter, she’d smile at him all the while…her job done…perhaps then there would be a finality to her end, to rise from death no more…
…it all came crashing down, with but a single look upon the face that stared blankly back at her behind cloudy eyes…dimmed and then darkened forever. A young girl whose tragedy mirrored her own so perfectly now lay helpless before her, and so too did a choice.
She could condemn the girl to her fate and do what she had spent countless days and nights dreaming of, decapitating the head of the Roman war machine…or…she could turn her back on the burning hatred she felt, and try to save a life…a life that might one day end up like her own if left to fester and rot in the tidal wave of hate and malice that had formed around her. In the end, she made a fateful choice…one that she would both live to covet and regret at the same time.
As the last of the three murdering Centurion dogs that had sought to defile and murder the girl lay moaning in the very filth he had so callously wrought, his life ebbing away through a ghastly wound she had dealt him in his crotch, Anka reached out and grabbed the girl by the scruff of her tattered clothing. She yanked the girl to her, half carrying and half dragging her as she did.
She looked over her shoulder at the command tent that undoubtedly housed Superius…it would be the last time that she would come so close. She had made a selfish choice…given up the greater good for the life of a single victim. How many more men, women, and children would Superius and his army crush? Anka couldn’t know…but their deaths would hang over her head as surely as they would the great General himself. They would be accomplices in mass murder on an unimaginable scale, Superius doing what he did for the lie that was the glory of Rome…Anka doing what she did for the lie that was the salvation of her soul.
Anka fled the camp and trudged through the bitter cold holding the girl that was of no relation to her, and yet, the girl had become more akin to her than any could ever be. How long would it be before the bodies were found and the legions came after them? She didn’t know…but if there was a chance that she could escape and save the girl…and possibly herself…she would gladly risk it, and risk it she did.
How long had she pushed through the snowcapped hills? She couldn’t count. Day and night she drove herself…urging the girl on…hearing the marching soldiers at her heels…looking for revenge for their own murdering comrades…looking to defile the girl she now protected.
Hours passed into days…days passed into weeks…then into months…
The girl soon grew to call Anka mother, though they were not at all so very far apart in age…and she called the girl Arella…the Hebrew word for angel…
…a certain sort of irony in that as well…
Anka knew that they were hunted, even though she never once saw the gleam of Centurion armor at their backs, she knew they were there…she sensed it. Moving…always moving…the two never lingered longer than a few days before moving on. She knew that they were an odd looking pair and attracted attention wherever they went. Her light bronze complexion with her long black ringlets of hair…the young Mongol girl with the almond colored skin and blind unseeing eyes.
They would be hunted down like dogs, it was only a matter of time. Rome was everywhere and everywhere was Rome…everywhere except for the ‘Savage Lands…’ the lands from which Arella’s people had come. They had stood against the might of Rome, prompting rumors of a great wall being built to keep them at bay. If they could make it there, to those savage lands, they would at long last be free of the ‘Evil Empire’ that had taken so much from them.
The danger that had once come from behind, by the unseen pursuing legions now shifted to the front. The nearer they came to the outskirts of Roman power, the greater the risk of getting caught in the middle of a border skirmish. Anka and Arella avoided towns and villages, taking to covering the Mongol girl to hide her features when it was unavoidable. They were close…close enough to see the mountains…and the Mongol lands beyond.
Anka could not remember when last she had prayed…really and truly prayed, yet now she did. She got down on her knees and she begged…not for herself…but for Arella. The girl had not known peace…not known joy…known only pain and loss. She prayed that the girl would not end up the same way that she had…jaded…mirthless…and thirsting for revenge. Give her the happiness that she deserved…let her be a child…the little angel for whom she was named.
God seemed to answer her prayers…for once…
As they crossed into the mountain passes, not a soul did they encounter. All around were signs of great battles fought between Roman and Mongol armies, but no more than that. Two and a half weeks passed until they crossed out of the mountains, out into the Savage Lands…freedom was theirs at long last…
…they had escaped Rome…
Anka and Arella kept to themselves and stayed off the beaten path. When they were unable to do so, they took every precaution. This time it was Anka who was forced to hide herself from view with a makeshift veil. All the same, in the end, it was all for not. They were discovered by a Mongol unit as they marched to the border.
Anka much preferred the inquisition she got from the Mongols to what she knew they would have received from the Romans.
The two were held and questioned for days on end…over and over, always the same…
…were they spies?
…what were the Romans planning?
…where would they strike next?
The questions held no meaning for Anka and Arella, but as they drug on, an uneasy feeling began to settle over the pair. Anka could feel that something was wrong and it was something she planned avoid. She formulated an escape plan. The two of them would escape under the cover of night…
…but they never got the chance…
Before Anka could slip her bonds with Arella and make good her escape, she was greeted by the all too familiar face of a murderous Centurion she never thought to ever see again. Before her stood the very man that had made an orphan of Arella…the man with the vile scar across his face…the same man that she had made a eunuch out of.
Romans…Mongols…together…it hardly seemed right.
The Centurion’s name was Flavaious, and after she had attacked him and left him for dead, he had managed to recover…such as one could in his condition. Not only had he recovered, but he had also been promoted by General Superius…for his ‘heroism’ of all things. Flavaious was given command of his own regiment and sent to bolster the defenses against the Mongols. Of course he had a secret agenda, one given to him by the Emperor himself. While he was recovering, Flavaious had told tales of the girl whom he had dealt a mortal blow to, yet she had not died. He had found himself brought into a great secret of the Empire, and given an even greater duty…to prevent that secret from getting out.
Flavaious had pursued Anka relentlessly, and once he had found out where she was going, he had struck a deal with the Mongols. In exchange for the girl, the incursions on Mongol lands would cease. The great wall would be finished, and the war for the ‘Savage Lands’ would end.
Again…another great irony…the lives of thousands, maybe even millions would be saved…not because she had killed Superius, but because she had dared to save the little girl instead…
…for a little while at least…
Flavaious proved to be a TRUE Roman in every sense of the word, affirming all that Anka ever thought of them. Flavaious was a sadist and a pedophile who had been hell bent on revenge against Anka, for all that she had taken from him. He took his vengeance out on Arella, all while Anka was made to watch. So vile were his acts against the young girl that a few of his soldiers refused to stay and watch…
…later he had them put to death…
When he had finally satisfied his bloodlust…his thirst for revenge…he did the Emperor’s bidding and he buried the secret of ‘the girl who would not die.’ The secret of the ‘One God’ religion would threaten the Empire no more…
The only question was how to get rid of a woman who would not die…
A FEW HOURS LATER...
Anka did her best to stifle the whimper that escaped her as she held Arella. Her body was broken and left a defiled and bloody ruin. Her tiny lips moved wordlessly, but the words didn’t need to come…she could read them perfectly…and they spelled the word…mother…
Even as she looked down into the girl’s unseeing eyes, she felt that they saw right into her. As they began to dim and grow dark and lifeless…a sound unlike any other burst out of her…a wail that could split the heavens in two.
The Roman’s that gathered there…only those who could be entrusted with such knowledge…turned their heads and looked away. They knew of the story…the girl had been ravaged, beaten savagely, nailed to a cross…and yet…she did not die. For nearly 300 years she was tortured and brutalized, but she didn’t die. Every one of them…each and every one had thought that they would give anything to have the power that her God had granted her…
…as they looked away…inside their secret hearts, they were glad not to have such a power. Living in ignorance was no longer such a bad thing. Her God may have been great, but how cruel He had been to her. Could He not have saved her if He wanted? Why did He not strike them all down? Her God might have been real, but in the end, He was just as uncaring as the many false gods of Rome.
The Centurions watched as the forlorn girl held the bloody body of the dying young angel close to her bosom. The darkness slowly…almost mercifully began to close around them as the sound of stone grinding against stone filled the air. Again they diverted their eyes…
…the child breathed no more…
…the heavy stone was rolled to the front of the cave…
…the secret of the girl who would not die would stay here forever…
DOWNTOWN
Lower Eastside, Empire City
Arella was in a panic as the mob bore down on her, hurling rocks, bottles, and whatever else they could find. The screamed for her blood…
“META SCUM!”
“MONGREL!”
“PIECE OF SHIT TERRORIST!”
As she ran into a dead end, she turned to face them, she tried to reach out with her power to control them...her eyes shaded over casting her into blindness, but her powers only worked on those with power. She screamed as a bottle smashed against the side of her head, knocking her to the ground.
“SHE’S DOWN!! KILL HER!! KILL THAT FILTHY META BITCH!!”
They closed in, ready to kill the girl…ready to do as they would to one who was not of their kind. Suddenly a massive gust of wind blew in, knocking many off their feet. They covered their eyes, expecting a hovercar to land, but instead Hexx descended, landing not so gracefully on tattered wings.
‘The Angel of Empire City’ struck and imposing figure as her wings fanned out, covering the width of the alley, her body was stained with blood from her battle with the police, and her hair hung over her face like a wet veil. Her voice as gravel as she spoke in a malevolent tone. “Do not touch my daughter!”
The mob suddenly confused, unsure of what was happening as Hexx walked towards them. Those few that saw her eyes through her twisted black mane knew that her thoughts were elsewhere…knew that death was coming for them…
THE FAR DISTANT PAST
The Wastelands…
Sometimes, to do what’s right, we must give up the things we want the most…
To Anka…that seemed a perverse joke…all the same, the truth that lay beneath it could not be denied. Superius, deemed a murdering Roman dog and made a symbol of all that she hated most was her white whale. She had pursued him relentlessly as he waged wars against the ‘heathen’ peoples who rejected the right of Rome to expand throughout the known world. How many people had he killed in the name of the dream that was Rome? She didn’t know, but she had seen so much death and slaughter that it no longer affected her, as it affected others…
…until a most unlikely turn…
Anka had never been as close as she had come on this day…never had a chance that was so perfect. His guards would strike her down, but not before she looked the devil in the eye and spit…running him through with his own sword. She’d watch him die a slow and painful death…perhaps even as his legions sought to do the same to her. It didn’t matter, she’d smile at him all the while…her job done…perhaps then there would be a finality to her end, to rise from death no more…
…it all came crashing down, with but a single look upon the face that stared blankly back at her behind cloudy eyes…dimmed and then darkened forever. A young girl whose tragedy mirrored her own so perfectly now lay helpless before her, and so too did a choice.
She could condemn the girl to her fate and do what she had spent countless days and nights dreaming of, decapitating the head of the Roman war machine…or…she could turn her back on the burning hatred she felt, and try to save a life…a life that might one day end up like her own if left to fester and rot in the tidal wave of hate and malice that had formed around her. In the end, she made a fateful choice…one that she would both live to covet and regret at the same time.
As the last of the three murdering Centurion dogs that had sought to defile and murder the girl lay moaning in the very filth he had so callously wrought, his life ebbing away through a ghastly wound she had dealt him in his crotch, Anka reached out and grabbed the girl by the scruff of her tattered clothing. She yanked the girl to her, half carrying and half dragging her as she did.
She looked over her shoulder at the command tent that undoubtedly housed Superius…it would be the last time that she would come so close. She had made a selfish choice…given up the greater good for the life of a single victim. How many more men, women, and children would Superius and his army crush? Anka couldn’t know…but their deaths would hang over her head as surely as they would the great General himself. They would be accomplices in mass murder on an unimaginable scale, Superius doing what he did for the lie that was the glory of Rome…Anka doing what she did for the lie that was the salvation of her soul.
Anka fled the camp and trudged through the bitter cold holding the girl that was of no relation to her, and yet, the girl had become more akin to her than any could ever be. How long would it be before the bodies were found and the legions came after them? She didn’t know…but if there was a chance that she could escape and save the girl…and possibly herself…she would gladly risk it, and risk it she did.
How long had she pushed through the snowcapped hills? She couldn’t count. Day and night she drove herself…urging the girl on…hearing the marching soldiers at her heels…looking for revenge for their own murdering comrades…looking to defile the girl she now protected.
Hours passed into days…days passed into weeks…then into months…
The girl soon grew to call Anka mother, though they were not at all so very far apart in age…and she called the girl Arella…the Hebrew word for angel…
…a certain sort of irony in that as well…
Anka knew that they were hunted, even though she never once saw the gleam of Centurion armor at their backs, she knew they were there…she sensed it. Moving…always moving…the two never lingered longer than a few days before moving on. She knew that they were an odd looking pair and attracted attention wherever they went. Her light bronze complexion with her long black ringlets of hair…the young Mongol girl with the almond colored skin and blind unseeing eyes.
They would be hunted down like dogs, it was only a matter of time. Rome was everywhere and everywhere was Rome…everywhere except for the ‘Savage Lands…’ the lands from which Arella’s people had come. They had stood against the might of Rome, prompting rumors of a great wall being built to keep them at bay. If they could make it there, to those savage lands, they would at long last be free of the ‘Evil Empire’ that had taken so much from them.
The danger that had once come from behind, by the unseen pursuing legions now shifted to the front. The nearer they came to the outskirts of Roman power, the greater the risk of getting caught in the middle of a border skirmish. Anka and Arella avoided towns and villages, taking to covering the Mongol girl to hide her features when it was unavoidable. They were close…close enough to see the mountains…and the Mongol lands beyond.
Anka could not remember when last she had prayed…really and truly prayed, yet now she did. She got down on her knees and she begged…not for herself…but for Arella. The girl had not known peace…not known joy…known only pain and loss. She prayed that the girl would not end up the same way that she had…jaded…mirthless…and thirsting for revenge. Give her the happiness that she deserved…let her be a child…the little angel for whom she was named.
God seemed to answer her prayers…for once…
As they crossed into the mountain passes, not a soul did they encounter. All around were signs of great battles fought between Roman and Mongol armies, but no more than that. Two and a half weeks passed until they crossed out of the mountains, out into the Savage Lands…freedom was theirs at long last…
…they had escaped Rome…
Anka and Arella kept to themselves and stayed off the beaten path. When they were unable to do so, they took every precaution. This time it was Anka who was forced to hide herself from view with a makeshift veil. All the same, in the end, it was all for not. They were discovered by a Mongol unit as they marched to the border.
Anka much preferred the inquisition she got from the Mongols to what she knew they would have received from the Romans.
The two were held and questioned for days on end…over and over, always the same…
…were they spies?
…what were the Romans planning?
…where would they strike next?
The questions held no meaning for Anka and Arella, but as they drug on, an uneasy feeling began to settle over the pair. Anka could feel that something was wrong and it was something she planned avoid. She formulated an escape plan. The two of them would escape under the cover of night…
…but they never got the chance…
Before Anka could slip her bonds with Arella and make good her escape, she was greeted by the all too familiar face of a murderous Centurion she never thought to ever see again. Before her stood the very man that had made an orphan of Arella…the man with the vile scar across his face…the same man that she had made a eunuch out of.
Romans…Mongols…together…it hardly seemed right.
The Centurion’s name was Flavaious, and after she had attacked him and left him for dead, he had managed to recover…such as one could in his condition. Not only had he recovered, but he had also been promoted by General Superius…for his ‘heroism’ of all things. Flavaious was given command of his own regiment and sent to bolster the defenses against the Mongols. Of course he had a secret agenda, one given to him by the Emperor himself. While he was recovering, Flavaious had told tales of the girl whom he had dealt a mortal blow to, yet she had not died. He had found himself brought into a great secret of the Empire, and given an even greater duty…to prevent that secret from getting out.
Flavaious had pursued Anka relentlessly, and once he had found out where she was going, he had struck a deal with the Mongols. In exchange for the girl, the incursions on Mongol lands would cease. The great wall would be finished, and the war for the ‘Savage Lands’ would end.
Again…another great irony…the lives of thousands, maybe even millions would be saved…not because she had killed Superius, but because she had dared to save the little girl instead…
…for a little while at least…
Flavaious proved to be a TRUE Roman in every sense of the word, affirming all that Anka ever thought of them. Flavaious was a sadist and a pedophile who had been hell bent on revenge against Anka, for all that she had taken from him. He took his vengeance out on Arella, all while Anka was made to watch. So vile were his acts against the young girl that a few of his soldiers refused to stay and watch…
…later he had them put to death…
When he had finally satisfied his bloodlust…his thirst for revenge…he did the Emperor’s bidding and he buried the secret of ‘the girl who would not die.’ The secret of the ‘One God’ religion would threaten the Empire no more…
The only question was how to get rid of a woman who would not die…
A FEW HOURS LATER...
Anka did her best to stifle the whimper that escaped her as she held Arella. Her body was broken and left a defiled and bloody ruin. Her tiny lips moved wordlessly, but the words didn’t need to come…she could read them perfectly…and they spelled the word…mother…
Even as she looked down into the girl’s unseeing eyes, she felt that they saw right into her. As they began to dim and grow dark and lifeless…a sound unlike any other burst out of her…a wail that could split the heavens in two.
The Roman’s that gathered there…only those who could be entrusted with such knowledge…turned their heads and looked away. They knew of the story…the girl had been ravaged, beaten savagely, nailed to a cross…and yet…she did not die. For nearly 300 years she was tortured and brutalized, but she didn’t die. Every one of them…each and every one had thought that they would give anything to have the power that her God had granted her…
…as they looked away…inside their secret hearts, they were glad not to have such a power. Living in ignorance was no longer such a bad thing. Her God may have been great, but how cruel He had been to her. Could He not have saved her if He wanted? Why did He not strike them all down? Her God might have been real, but in the end, He was just as uncaring as the many false gods of Rome.
The Centurions watched as the forlorn girl held the bloody body of the dying young angel close to her bosom. The darkness slowly…almost mercifully began to close around them as the sound of stone grinding against stone filled the air. Again they diverted their eyes…
…the child breathed no more…
…the heavy stone was rolled to the front of the cave…
…the secret of the girl who would not die would stay here forever…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Arella ... Orchid
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Centurion Flavaious ... Chris Andrew
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure
CAST (In order of appearance)
Arella ... Orchid
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Centurion Flavaious ... Chris Andrew
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure