Chapter 5-Nyx

Chapter four is, as of yet, incomplete. Sorry for the gap.

Luke was being shaken awake. His eyes fluttered open, meeting his father’s smiling face. Except something was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, an itch in his brain that he couldn’t scratch. Streams of images flashed through his mind. Memories, he knew, that for some reason had been forgotten until now. This man was not his father, he was his prisoner, his servant, no, his slave. He sat up too fast, scrambling away from the hand on his knee, impeded somewhat by the tangled sheets. 

“Luke, are you alright?” came the concerned voice. Luke’s mind was racing, trying to comprehend the memories that were threatening to overwhelm him. The first six years of his life had always been a blank, but now they returned to him with an earnest.

There were a thousand things to say, to ask, to scream.

But in that moment, just one thing mattered.

“Where is my mother?”

~

Nyx’s rage was all encompassing. She didn’t need to touch someone to know what had happened, not this time. She could feel it in her skin. Her powers were back, and with them the familiar insanity that had already begun to creep into her mind. 

Perfidy was the only explanation. She had trusted Anthony with the ring’s safekeeping and he had betrayed her. 

A familiar rage began to take over, and Nyx let it.  She had not felt such anger in a long time, but instead of fighting it, she embraced it. She basked in it, gloried in it. Let it take over and guide her to the traitor.

~

“Your mother’s downstairs?” came Anthony Evanston’s bemused reply. Luke’s question, as simple as it had been, had carried with it such an unusual tone that his confusion and concern was merited.

“She is not my mother,” said Luke with an unnerving conviction. “She is not my mother and you are not my father. What have you done to her?”

“Luke, what on earth are you talking about?”

“What have you done with my mother? Did you kill her? Imprison her?”

“Luke, my son, stop-”

“Am I some sort of hostage, to ensure her cooperation? Is that why you took my memory?”

“I never--”

“Where is my mother, Anthony? Where is Nyx?”

~

Nyx could barely hear the water from the sink over the madness pounding in her head. Black dye ran into the sink as she rinsed her hair, staining the already disgusting porcelain. The gas station bathroom was not ideal in the least, but when she looked in the mirror and saw her face--her real face, with black hair and green eyes looking back at her, she couldn’t help but smile. What did it matter now if she was recognized, Matthew knew where she was, and Anthony must know too at this point. She had nothing left to lose. Looking like herself, like the nightmare she knew she was, was perhaps the only advantage she had left for her revenge. 

~

Luke knew, on some level, that there was no way he could fight Anthony. His “father” was a superhero, after all, gifted with flight and enormous strength. Luke was strong for his age and trained in hand to hand combat,  but was also an eleven year old boy with no powers to speak of. But the part of him that knew this was forced into silence by anger and fear. And so he jumped onto the man by the side of his bed, his only thought to hurt him in any way possible.

“What the hell are you doing Luke!” Anthony yelled, checking himself before his shock turned to anger.  He knew he must get himself, and his strength, under control, or he might accidentally hurt the child. 

“Where is she? Why are you lying to me?” He became faintly aware that there were tears streaming down his face as he yelled.

“Luke, if you could just calm down, I can explain-”

“NO!” came Luke’s scream. He redoubled his efforts, but Anthony, though unresisting, seemed unaffected by the assault.

Then, with a superhuman grace, Anthony lifted the boy off of him, taking pains to be gentle, and set him on the bed. As he looked at the weeping child in front of  him, the smartest man in the world realized he had no idea what to do. This wasn’t supposed to happen--he had assumed she had his memories; he never suspected that they too were trapped in the ring. He would have to get Psychic back here, to block them off for good. But for now--

For now, he left Luke there, sobbing as he relived his past for the first time in six years. Anthony knew nothing he could say at this point could comfort him. And though his heart ached for his only son, he knew that the child would feel nothing but hate for him and the rest of his family until Psychic came. And so it was with a reluctant but determined heart that he shut the door and locked Luke in his room.

~

A woman with black hair and green eyes sped down the highway, revenge in her heart, the destination in her mind. Her insanity was alive and well, and she followed it as it guided her to Chicago.

~

And in that skyscraper in the city towards which Nyx sped, a little boy cried alone in his room, weeping for his missing mother as he raged against his lying father.