September Seneca Silver: Past, Present, Potato

A/N This is… strange. It’s random. It introduces completely new and previously unmentioned plot points that make no sense. I completely forgot to put Fabi in this chapter (although Faeris shows up). So bear with me here.

Ember ran outside the door and devoured everyone she could see. She dragged one of the bodies back to the door, and vowed that she'd give to Liberty as a sort of sorry present.

She closed her eyes and prepared to bring Liberty back to life. Golden light flooded her vision, and she felt like she was floating. She raised her hands and picked through the various souls in her inventory. When she couldn't find Liberty, she went on a bit of a detour to Heaven.

It was beautiful--the floor was covered in marble, and chandeliers floated in the air. The whole place was basked in an orange glow, like there was a never-ending sunset lighting up the sky. Various souls floated around, talking or just strolling, and she took a moment to greet all the new faces.

She also made it a point to slap Fletcher's girlfriend in the face.

After looking around, she still couldn't find Liberty. So she waved her hand in the air and screamed, "MENTAL!"

Her previous assistant, Kayla Mental, teleported next to her and nodded. "Yes, miss Silver?"

"Where is my sister?"

Mental curtsied. "I think she's with your parents."

Ember choked on her own spit. "WHAT? WHAT THE HELL?"

"I'm not sure why, but... she is. I think they snuck up behind her and knocked her out, and then they took her."

Ember didn't even bother to thank Mental. Or to bring her back to life, she annoyed her. She just ran, ran for what was left of her sister's life.

"ELIZABETH!" she yelled. "ELIZABETH!"

She heard a scream, and her heart dropped. What are my parents doing to her now? she wondered. She kept running though, memories flashing through her head.

"Ember."

Ember twitched and buried herself further into the corner.

"Ember, come here."

Ember shivered but slowly crept out of her room--a tiny closet with no light. "Yes?"

Her father glared at her from the living room. "You want to be tough when you grow up, right?"

"Y-yes, but... I mean, no..."

He grabbed her by the arm. "No child of mine is going to be a freaking wimp, now shut up and pay attention."

Ember noticed that Elizabeth was tied to a chair and gulped. She knew what was going to happen. She knew what would happen even before she stepped out of her room.

Her father grabbed a large whip and handed it to her. "You know what to do."

She turned to him, now crying. "I don't... I don't want to..."

He slapped her, hard. "Do it. Do it now, or you're going to be in the chair instead of her."

She paused, so he growled and took the whip from her. "You want to see how it's done? Okay."

He lashed at Elizabeth with the whip, and she closed her mouth defiantly and refused to cry. He did it over and over and over again, and then he grabbed both ends of the whip and tied it around Elizabeth's throat. He pulled on it, and Elizabeth gagged and clawed his arms as scarlet blood spilled out of her neck.

In a flash he threw the whip to the side, and then he choked her to death with his own hands. Ember watched, terrified, as the life went from Elizabeth's eyes and she went limp.

He brought her back to life, and then he killed her over and over again until Ember wanted to faint. This happened every night, except that sometimes it was Ember instead of Elizabeth.

Ember screamed, and then her father moved towards her with the whip back in his hand.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, even though tears were spilling down her face like they always did when she remembered.

She found the stairway that led to Hell, but she couldn't be bothered to keep running so she closed her eyes and stretched her arms out. Snowy white wings appeared on her back, and she flew down as fast as she could.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" she yelled.

And then she saw her parents, knives in their hands. Liberty's face was disfigured and unrecognisable, and Ember was sure that if she hadn't already been dead, she would be dead now.

Her father turned to her with a twisted smile and said, "Why didn't you bring us back to life last time? Why only your pathetic excuse for a sister?"

"You're a pathetic excuse for a parent," Ember said. She tried to keep the emotion out of her voice like her parents had taught her, but she was afraid for Elizabeth and her voice wavered.

"I made you who you are today," her father said. "I promised you I'd make you strong, make you tough. Didn't I do a good job? Aren't you happy?"

"I was never happy," she said, venom in her voice. "Even now I hate how heartless I've become. And you're right, that was all because of you."

Her father lunged at her with the knife, but she flew to the side just in time. Grabbing Liberty, she flew off, but not before her father spread his wings and started flying after her.

"Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth was dead. Her father hadn't brought her back to life this time, and now she was lying outside in the cold.

"Elizabeth, listen to me! You need to wake up, you have to!"

Elizabeth stayed silent.

Ember cried in the darkness, and cradled Elizabeth's head in her arms. "I'm sorry. I can't help you. I don't know how he does the healing thing, I just... I can't..."

You have to try, a little voice in her head told her.

So she closed her eyes, tried to focus on all her energy and push it out of her hands. It didn't work, so she tried again and again until little flashes of energy sparked from her fingertips.

Come on. For Elizabeth.

For about an hour she tried to heal her sister, but it didn't work.

And finally, she poured her entire heart into gathering the light and the heat and the energy and the health, and she brought her sister back to life.

That was when she decided to be a Healer.

She flew faster and faster, but her father was catching up to her.

This isn't working, she thought. I need to change tactics. I need to--

And then her father came up behind her with the knife, and he took her life.

"No," Ember whispered. She wasn't unconscious, but she couldn't leave now. She couldn't go back to Fabi and Star. She couldn't go back to Mara.

She couldn't give her sister back to the world of the living.

----

Faeris had seriously had enough.

She was outnumbered. There was Fabi, there was the girl who threw the ink everywhere, the crying girl who liked Five Redirections, and the girl who wanted to kill somebody.

That was more than enough people, thank you so very much.

And also she had just fallen down, and she was sure that somebody was going to come get her soon.

So she decided to just go back to Mevolent and tell him... I dunno, something. Maybe he'd let her take some more backup next time.

She tried to sneak out, but not before a voice said, "What do you think you're doing?"

Whipping around, she whispered, "Who are you?"

"Mr. Bliss," the voice said. "At your service."

She frowned. "You're dead."

There was a pause. "Yes... and no. I mean, I think I'm dead, but I don't really know... They didn't exactly explain this to me."

"Where are you?"

"I'm right in front of you!"

She looked in front of her, but there was just a potato there.

"I only see a potato."

"I AM the potato."

She froze. "You... you're a potato?"

"Yes."

"You're a potato."

"Apparently so."

"Oh my god."

"I know."

"But... you... how... how is this humanly possible?"

"I don't know."

Her mouth was hanging open. "I... uh... yeah... um... good day to you. I am.... uh...  going out to get groceries..."

She left before he could say anything, scratching her head in disbelief.