Chapter Four
Fading
Fast
Willow was falling.
Falling into an inky abyss of no escape. She hit the darkness as it swallowed
her up. Willow tried to kick free
of the inky gunk, but she only pushed herself farther into it. As Willow shut her eyes
for a minute, the inky black vanished, and in its place was a surgical table,
which she was once again strapped to.
“Willow…don’t be afraid…we’re not the bad guys…”
The quiet voice once more rang
through her head, whispering softly, but loud enough to be heard.
“…don’t be afraid…we’re not the bad guys…YOUR FATHER IS…”
The voice was suddenly deeper
and louder. The vibrations rang in her ears. She was tempted to cover them,
although she knew she couldn’t. Her ears throbbed and pounded.
Then
there was the dreaded scene right in front of here straight from the past. Her
mom on the ground. The man pointing his gun at Lily’s heart, smiling evilly at Willow from the doorway.
“No!” she sobbed, reaching out
for her mother as everything went pitch black.
Willow woke up
gasping. A thin sheen of perspiration coated her flesh. She put her hands to
her eyes and they came back wet. She had been crying.
“God, Willow, are you okay?”
Willow looked up.
Viola was right there by her side with a concerned look on her face. Willow didn’t answer,
but instead bunched her knees up to her chest and began to cry.
Unshed tears that had been
building up for sixteen long years began to flow easily.
“Willow?” Viola’s voice
drifted to her. “Willow, tell me what’s
wrong. First, you black out on me and now this. Just tell me.”
Willow lifted her head
and looked into her best friend’s eyes. Viola had never seen her look so
vulnerable and she looked quite unnerved by it.
“I can’t. It’s…a secret,” she
breathed quietly.
“Well, it must be one hell of
a secret. Just please tell me. Please, Willow?” she asked
gently, rubbing her back.
Willow looked up once
more from her knees. Her voice was just so…soothing. Like her mother’s. Willow’s thoughts
drifted to the past, her happy past. She pictured her and her mom licking
melting ice cream off of the cones at a carnival as a five-year-old Willow held a
medium-sized stuffed panda in her tiny arms.
“Okay,” she whispered
silently. She took a breath and began to tell her tale.
“My mom and I were really
close. She was my whole world, my only world. She was everything I had since my
dad left when I was born, or at least from what my mom told me. I don’t know a
thing about him. I loved my mom, but, thing is, I can barely remember her
nowadays. The past just seems so far away. And all�"” She motioned with her arms
out. “�"this began one night. Then my whole world changed…”
Willow told Viola in
detail of what had happened the night her mom was murdered, about the man and
his gun, and the years that followed the encounter. She told her of her
homeless life on the streets and of how she was abducted by a mysterious man.
“I can’t remember the life I
had between ages nine to twelve. It’s just all
one big blank. Then a whole new life
began for me at age thirteen when I was taken into a foster family to live
here, in another part of Crescent City.”
Viola, Willow noticed, was
having a hard time digesting this all at once. She looked baffled but her
expression softened, not into sympathy, but into compassion and understanding. Willow ran a hand
through her pillow hair. Vi grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently.
“I understand. My dad…well,
let’s just say he didn’t know a thing about kids,” she joked lightly, trying to
break the silence. Willow laughed but
exhaled a deep sigh, her heart heaving. Her eyes began to water as the pain in
her heart began to get even more unbearable.
“It’s just…I felt that I
couldn’t trust anyone for the longest time. Things just seem to…go wrong,” Willow blubbered,
wiping the tears from her eyes. “I miss her… a lot.”
As Willow cried in her
hands, Viola swept her up in a comforting hug quite like a mother would calm a
sobbing child. Viola and Willow both cried
together because of all the things that had all gone right and wrong during
both of their lives. Images of the past floated past her vision, which prodded
her even more to spill the sadness that was locked within her heart. They cried
in joy, in misery, and in agony. And once the tears could flow no more, Willow felt as if a
weight had been literally lifted from her shoulders.
“God, that was just what I
needed,” Willow hoarsely
whispered, wiping the last of her tears away with the back of her hand.
“I haven’t cried like that in
a long time. I needed that. Clears
the senses.”
“And the sinuses,” Willow pointed out.
At that, the both of them
laughed the hardest they ever had in their entire lives.
_____
Viola’s stomach hurt so hard
from laughing, more like guffawing, that she had to clutch it to keep from
falling over off the bed. Both Willow and Vi had
cracked up after Willow made the
stupidest little joke.
Willow sighed deeply,
inhaling a large gulp of air, and giggled once more.
“Jeez, I definitely needed that! God, I can barely speak.”
“Well, even if it was your
joke, you needed some cheerin’ up, anyhoo.”
“Yeah…” Willow trailed off as
she saw the hour on the clock in Viola’s room it was 1:30.
“Jesus! Mike and Aggie are
gonna kill me!”
“What?”
“It’s past my curfew! That’s
what!”
Viola cocked an eyebrow “I
thought a girl like you didn’t have a curfew.”
Willow smiled
sheepishly. “You’d be surprised.”
“Come on,” Viola offered,
“I’ll walk you home.”
“Thanks, Vi. I really appreciate this.”
“As long as my ma ain’t home,
then it’s safe to go anywhere I please.”
As they were halfway to
Willow’s house, Viola couldn’t help but wonder what it was like to have your
mom murdered right before your very eyes. It must’ve been very difficult for her to
cope all these years. And even now she still seems sad. Viola looked over at Willow as they slowly
walked down the concrete sidewalk of the city. She appeared sullen. Viola
opened her mouth but closed it. She probably doesn’t want to bring up such a
painful topic.
Willow sighed as a
soft breeze blew; the breeze blew through the girls’ hair, sending it flying
about their shoulders. Willow especially was
very pretty when her hair blew about her shoulders. Vi couldn’t figure how such
a pretty girl didn’t know that she was pretty. She suddenly thought of
something that sent a thrill of excitement to her face. No, it couldn’t be, could it…?
Vi
sneaked a peak at Willow, but returned
to her previous state of thoughtfulness. It was so serene at night, even more
than during the day when the streets were bustling with life and warmth. Now it
seemed so cold and dead, Viola couldn’t help but wonder--
Viola’s thoughts were
interrupted by the siren of a police car.
“Oh great,” she heard Willow mutter.
The two turned toward the
vehicle as an old officer, probably around fifty or so, climbed out of it. The
officer fiddled with his belt for a moment and then averted his gaze to Viola
and Willow.
“What’s the matter, Officer?”
asked Willow.
“I got a call that a girl
named…,” he said pausing a moment to look at a paper, “Willow Halliwell was
missing. She has black hair, violet eyes, and is about…hmmm…5’9 in height.”
The police officer turned to Willow and looked her
over. “Now, I’d say you perfectly match the description, wouldn’t you say?
What’s your name, sweetie?”
“Um….” Willow nervously bit
her lip, trying to whip up a lie.
He pursed his thin lips.
“Well, I’ll have to ask you to come with me.”
He motioned for her to sit in
the back seat of the cruiser. Willow waved good-bye
to Viola as Viola glanced at Willow with pity. She
watched as Willow rode off in the
cruiser and went around the block until Viola wasn’t able to see her anymore.
Viola kept walking on for no reason at all, mulling over all that Willow had confessed
to her. It seemed utterly impossible that one person’s life could be…such a
mess. It was somehow like how a tree would grow and grow until someone came
along and just absentmindedly cut it down for no reason at all. Viola kicked a
pebble across the worn concrete. Maybe that’s just the way friendships went
down.
_____
Willow kept going over
and over about these thoughts. The disbelief that had, and still does, come
from hearing that her father was her mother’s killer. Then there were the
dreams of her subconscious that had revealed it to her all from the start. She
shook her head. Lights of the many houses of her neighborhood passed her by
from inside the window at a fair pace. Her head bobbed to and fro with the movements
of the car. The car lurched to a stop as the engine that had been humming
quietly before halted. Willow heard a
slamming of a car door and noticed that the police officer was finally letting
her out. The door on Willow’s side of the
car opened.
“Come on, let’s go,” he heard
him say from beside her. Willow, keeping her
head bent, stepped carefully from the car and into the dewy grass. The officer
marched right up to the front door and rang the bell. Willow looked around
and scanned the house. During the day it had seemed so friendly and warm, but
now it was a haunted house with ivy creeping up the sides. Silence surrounded
its outside.
“Oh thank you, Officer. Thank
you so much!”
It was Agatha. God, how that
high-pitched voice of hers made her want to scream.
“Where in the world have you
been, young lady? We were so worried about you!” Yeah,
right, Willow mused. “I
was with Viola. We were at her house. I guess we just lost track of time. She volunteered to take me home.”
“Oh, well, thank you once
again.”
He tipped his hat. “My
pleasure, ma’am. Just be careful to keep track of that one. Wouldn’t want to
lose her. She’s a pretty one.”
Aggie’s fake sweet smile
turned into a menacing frown the moment she shut the front door. She curled her
tiny fingers into fists and placed them on both of her hips.
“Do you know how late it is?
Where were you?”
“God, I already told you! I
was at Vi’s!”
She crossed her arms. “Uh-huh,
and what exactly were you doing?”
“Studying!”
Please don’t ask, please don’t ask, plea-
“And what exactly were you
studying?”
“History, English, whatever!”
“Willow, I’m sick and
tired of you lying to me! Where exactly were you?”
Willow knew now that
she couldn’t wriggle herself out of this one.
“All right, I was at Blanca’s.” She waved her hands around in
front of her. “B-but it’s not what you think!”
“Blanca’s? Willow you could’ve
been raped! Or worse!”
“It’s nothing!”
“Willow don’t you
realize that even with Viola, you still could’ve been in danger! And what were
you doing at Blanca’s anyway? And on
a school night, too!”
“What the hell is all this
yelling about?” asked Mike, entering the room wearing a wrinkled sweater and
dark blue jeans.
“Willow here was out
late and�"”
“And so what?”
“She was out late, Michael.
Think, will you. For once, I wish you’d use your head!”
Willow was about to
slink away from the scene when Aggie called her back.
“Not so fast, young lady. Come
over here now,” she said, emphasizing
the last word to say that she meant business. Willow hunched her
shoulders, bracing herself for what was about to happen.
Agatha sighed. “Let’s all go
and sit down in the living room. We all need to have a little talk.”
_____
Severin shuffled the very
papers he had received earlier that evening, glancing them over once more.
There came a sharp knock from
his office door.
Annoyed, he called out, “Yes?”
The door creaked open and a
tall, bald man named Cain entered. The commander of his protective guard stood
stoical.
“What do you want?”
The man came over slowly,
clearly not afraid of Severin. In front of his desk, the man didn’t answer, but
stuck out his hand. A folded piece of paper was half-open in the palm of his
hand.
Severin eyed him suspiciously.
“What is it?”
The man once again gave no
answer; instead he motioned with his hand to take the paper. Severin,
suspicious carefully reached out and took it. He opened it slowly and read.
From: M
To: S
Subject BW has revealed secret. Told closest friend whole story. What is plan
of action?
Just as I figured. The girl is weakened by her emotions.
Severin pursed his lips and looked up at
Cain.
“Tell them it’s time.”
Cain nodded
silently and left, ready to take action. The plan of action would be unexpected
and wouldn’t involve Cain himself, but others instead.
_____
Viola kept walking, having no
purpose with tons of thoughts tumbling through her mind all at once.
What she told
me, I just can’t figure out.
The truth that Willow wasn’t able to
trust anyone and that her mother had died when she was just six was still not
computing in her brain. It was like she had heard the words, but couldn’t
comprehend them. When Willow had told her
that, it had hit her like a gong straight in the face. And then there was that
strange feeling Vi had had. All those cool moves Vi saw and the dark beauty of
her was so obvious. Viola found her self at the corner of an alley. Everything
around her was quiet…except for the hurried tapping of heels coming straight
for her.
A woman in high heels was
running madly towards her, tripping over her own feet. “Help me!”
“What’s wrong?” she asked as
the woman clung to her shoulder.
“A man�"he wants my purse!
Please, help me!” she begged, tucking loose red hairs behind her ears.
Just then there a man with a
gun and a black mask covering his face; spotting them, he came towards Viola
and the woman. The woman ducked behind Viola’s back just as the man approached
her.
“Give me the woman!” he
demanded, pointing the gun at Vi’s face.
Viola crossed her arms. “No!
Why should I?”
“Ya wanna get shot or else?”
“You think I’m afraid of a
gun?”
Viola heard a click from
behind her back and turned around to see a gun pointed right between her eyes.
“You should be,” purred the
woman.
Her heart began to race as
fear completely took charge of her entire body. Vi began to sweat off the
makeup she had applied earlier that night.
“Come now. Into the alley.”
The guns prodded her into the
alley. The farther they walked, the darker it got. Vi began to get even more
afraid then before. She heard footsteps and swerved around to face several more
guns, all of them blocking any possible route of escape.
“Face it, kid. You’re
surrounded. Now, what did Willow whisper into that cute little ear of yours?”
“What?” she exclaimed,
baffled. “But how d-do you--?”
“We’ve been watching Willow everyday.
Watching every single movement she takes and hearing every single word she
utters. Now tell me now, or else next time, I won’t be so nice. What did she
tell you?”
“NO!”
Vi thrust her knee into a
man’s groin. He fell down clutching it and groaning loudly. She made a run for
it, running as fast as her legs could carry her.
“Get her! Don’t let her get
away or Severin will have my head! We can’t let the entire plan be destroyed!”
‘Plan?’
Just then, as Viola thought
she was free, she fell face-forward onto the cracked cement. She felt arms lift
her under her armpits and carry her back to the woman.
“I gave you the chance to play
nicely, but it seems that you prefer to play it rough. But, that’s okay, ‘cause
I can, too.”
Viola’s heart throbbed more
wildly than ever as the barrel of the gun was raised to her forehead. Vi
struggled with all her might, but couldn’t free herself. Tears poured down her
face.
“No, please…WILLOW!”
_____
“Look, Willow…,” Aggie sighed,
“the reason we can’t have you running around at night is because, well…it’s
dangerous for you. Very dangerous. Especially in a city like this where the
crime rate is very high. Do you understand? We just don’t want to see you get
hurt, or worse.”
“I understand. Really, I do.
Can I go now?”
“Willow. It seems you
don’t…”
Agatha’s voice faded as Willow picked up a
scream in the distance. If a normal person heard it, they would’ve thought it
was simply a dog howling. But no, it was something more. Her ears rang with the
sound and she tuned into it. She recognized the voice.
Viola.
Willow jumped out of
her seat.
“Willow, are you even
listening to me? Willow? Willow, get
back here now! WILLOW!”
Willow opened the
front window and climbed out. She ran across the yellowing lawn, her long,
graceful legs pumping with adrenaline.
I’ve got to get
to her. She may be in real danger.
Once Willow got there she
saw Viola struggling against some burly men. A woman had pointed her gun to
Vi’s head. Her wide eyes narrowed as pure red hatred clouded her vision. Willow ran for the gun
just as the woman pulled the trigger.
“No!” she screeched, pulling
the woman’s arm towards her. The gun itself hit something unknown, the sound
ringing hurting her eardrums. The men came at her as the woman recovered from
her shock. Willow launched a kick
to the woman’s head, but instead the woman crouched low on the ground just in
time and swept her feet from under her. The men picked her up and one twisted
her arm behind her back while the other held her by her forearm so hard that it
was sure to cause a bruise.
The woman approached her,
waving her gun around in Willow’s face, smiling
evilly. If Willow could get free,
she would wipe that damn smirk of hers right off her pretty little face.
“Well, well, look who it
is…the boss’s beautiful daughter. My, my, aren’t we looking lovely this
evening?” she taunted, playing with Willow’s perfectly
straight hair. Willow tried to bite
her on the hand, but the woman herself was too quick and wagged her index
finger in Willow’s face.
“Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast,
little girl. You have to do something for me now.”
This woman obviously does not know what she’s getting herself into.
Willow absolutely
hated to be called a little girl.
“Why in the world would I do anything for you?” she
growled, speaking through bared teeth.
“If you were smart enough, you
would take this opportunity while you have it. If you don’t, your friend over
there dies.”
The woman pointed to Viola,
who was lying on the ground as still as a rock, her face paler than death. Willow’s eyes widened
in, not fear, but pain and sadness.
She bent her head so that her
long hair covered the countenance on her face. “All right,” she surrendered,
“I’ll do as you say. Just let her go.”
“That’s better,” the
red-haired woman cooed.
The men’s grip on her loosened
slightly. This was what Willow had been
waiting for. Willow put a hand on
the arm that was gripping hers behind her back, lifted and threw him down on
the ground with the strength of a sumo-wrestler. The other man came lunging
towards her with a sloppy punch that she had easily dodged. She sent the man
flying with a swift kick to the pride, him landing on the ground face-down
unconscious.
Willow, weakened by
fighting, accidentally fell on one of the men she had beaten up. Her lips
brushed his cheek gently. He went pale, spasms rocking his body; he let out one
last groan before falling to the ground, one spot on his cheek swelling. Willow touched his
cheek, finding it wet with an amaranthine liquid. Venom.
Willow wiped her mouth
on the sleeve of her dirty black turtleneck as the woman fled the alley,
leaving her at last alone with Viola. She had no time to dwell on the new
ability that she had just discovered. Viola was in danger.
Willow approached
Viola carefully, rubbing the bruises and scratches she had through the fight.
She crouched down and observed her. Vi had a few scratches here and there; some
on her legs and others on her face and arms. It didn’t look serious to Willow and looked as
if they might heal quite nicely…except for one thing: a pool of crimson blood
was puddled around the left side of her chest. Willow widened her
eyes in dismay as she turned Vi over on the cracked cement. Willow could heal very
fast within a day because of the strange abilities she had somehow acquired.
But there was only once other time in her life when she saw a case like this:
the night of her mother’s murder.
A gaping hole straight through
the left side of Viola’s chest showed how deep the bullet went. Willow gently picked
her body up and set it in her lap. She felt her pulse; it was slow, getting
slower by the minute. Viola’s breathing was shallow and labored. Willow could tell that
she was fading fast.
“W-willow?” she heard a quiet whisper utter from the mouth of her
friend, possibly as light as a breeze, but Willow still heard it,
nonetheless.
“I’m here. It’s gonna be
okay,” she said, not even sure that she believed herself, not even sure that
she believed anything she said at this moment.
“What…happened?”
“You were shot, but it’s gonna
be okay now that I’m here.”
“Willow, they knew.
They knew that I knew.”
“What? What did you know?”
“They knew that
y-you told me your secret, but also figured something else out. I heard about
you, but I…I never actually thought I would meet you.”
“What?”
Viola smiled weakly. “My best
friend’s a superhero. Isn’t it obvious? You’re the Black Widow.”
“Yeah…” Willow smiled back
with all the energy she had.
“Cool…”
Viola took in another, more
raspy breath. “Willow, I…I can barely
move. I’m so weak.”
“Shhh, it’s gonna be okay.”
Willow held Viola
close to her, stroking her wet forehead. The cold sweat wiped off onto her
hands; blood stained her hands and arms; Willow gently held
her.
“Willow, you’re the
best friend. I’ve ever had. Thanks so much for being there for me when nobody
else was. I just can’t believe I finally met you when I’m dying.”
“You’re welcome.”
“One more thing?”
“Yeah?”
“Willow, during the
fight. I heard something I wasn’t supposed to. Something horrible.”
“What?” Willow asked
desperately, moving closer.
“They’re…they’re coming for
you.”
“Who is?”
“They’re coming for
you…someone with a plan…Seve-Severin…”
Viola stopped breathing all at
once, her skin becoming cold and pale. Hot tears ran down Willow’s cheeks. She
lay limp in Willow’s arms.
Lifeless.
“No…please…Viola…Viola…”
Tears choked her; sorrow enveloped her
in its melancholy embrace. A sharp pain contorted her heart; it stabbed her and
stole her of everything she thought she knew. The darkness within that she knew
was the only comfort she had.
Willow hugged the body
of Viola to her, savoring the last sign of life that was in her; the warmth.
Something cold and wet hit Willow’s nose. She
looked up and gazed at the sky. Dark clouds gathered and began to shower the
world with their salty water. It rained hard and Willow kept crying.
She cried for all the pain, all the loneliness, all the hate inside of her. The
pain was like a dagger in her very heart, stabbing away at her until not one
ounce of life remained in her soul.
Willow became apart of
these black-and-white worlds as she shed the pain inside of her. Right now,
there was no gray, only the separate lives, and the separate worlds of so many
people whose, like her, entire lives had been destroyed. Willow cried in
happiness, in sadness, and all the things that were about to come. She became
apart of the wet and the dry, the feeling and the unfeeling. She faded into
nothingness and emptiness as the mist from the rain surrounded her and consumed
her for what seemed like an eternity.
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