Chapter 42 — She’s Now Her Curse

With fire and blood in her eyes, and with a speed that made time halt and made her unseen, causing Chadwick and the Red Haux to wonder, Susan engaged these beings all at once. It wasn’t with a curse she did this. It was with absolute raw power, and right now, she was in the blood rage.

No sparks of fire lingered in mid-air, nothing to mark Susan’s presence save for the tearing and slicing of skins. Heads had been sliced off, but it was all still within a second, so her victims were alive, but briefly, for once the hand of time moved, it would be against them, and they would see a bitter end.

But Susan didn’t stop. She didn’t want to. She loved the feel of their skin against her swords and sharp claws and the smell of their blood as perceived from mid-air. She could see the horror in their eyes, then Eleanor spoke.

“Stop!”

Susan zapped to a stop before her enemies, and they all looked at her. She unfroze time, and the Red Haux and Chadwick scattered on the floor as chunks of meat. Susan isolated the chunks of Chadwick from that of the Red Haux by looking at it, and they all elevated.

“It’s the end,” Susan said.

Lightning struck each chunk, turning it to ashes. She gathered the ashes and made it burn with a heat that would make the sun shrink. Each speck of ashes disappeared into nothing like it wasn’t part of our world.

The chunks of the Red Haux on the ground gathered into one and became a man.

This man, who had his belly to the ground, looked up at Susan and shook his head. He took to his feet.

“I see why they call you the Red Haux,” Susan said. “You’re just one.”

“A mistake,” the Red Haux said. “Should I have faced you as one, that wouldn’t have happened. Clearly, I in many forms doesn’t help me, but only aided your victory.”

“Giving up?”

He nodded. “For now. But it’s not totally defeat. At least, not to me. I will return, Susan.”

Susan said nothing.

He stared at her for some seconds. “Aren’t you the least curious? Don’t you see what Eleanor did wrong? I came for her, not you. She used you to achieve her goal of preventing me from getting her because you are powerful. Need I remind you that she cursed you? She stole all these years from you. Why not just hand her over to me? Why not let me help you end this suffering?”

Black fumes came out of Susan’s nose. “She stole a power to create more powers. She cursed her family because she saw something coming, and she knew the power that can wield this curse is the power of the Red Haux to create. Actually, it belongs to the blood sea, but during the ancient rebellion, you stole it to curb our strength.” Her eyes brightened red. “All the powers allocated to the blood sea now belongs to us.”

The Red Haux nodded. “Nothing can get to you, then. I wish your mother hadn’t made you immortal. I would have killed you.” He looked around. “I don’t see Chadwick.”

“I killed him.”

“He can’t die.”

“I used the power to create to end him. He’s dead. No more would he return to this life, or the afterlife.”

Lightning ran through the body of the Red Haux, and his eyes glowed white. “This isn’t over, Susan.”

Susan simply stood still, both hands to her side. Her face and armor were all smeared in blood, and in both hands were two diamond swords. “So you’ve said,” she said. “Return. Stay till I come for you. But if you wish to come for me, then know I’ll try to be a grand host. And please, come with everything you have. Don’t disappoint me next time. Live up to Eleanor’s expectation of you. Now, go before I change my mind and engage you in another rough cut you may never assemble from.”

The Red Haux took her warning and vanished.

Susan exhaled and looked to the ground, the swords in her hands vanished, and so did her armor. As if fire passed through her, she became a lady in a white gown with no spot of blood on her. She looked to the clouds and it turned to day. Then she looked at her surroundings to see no one was watching. She vanished.

Susan appeared before the red veil in the court of the blood sea, and she was confident the Queen was still on the throne. She knelt with her face to the floor.

“Mother,” Susan said. “I won.”

Then, Susan felt the warmth of her mother’s love envelope her, and in that instance, all the scary appearance in her eyes disappeared. She had conquered an enemy of the blood sea, but she didn’t feel herself the victor.

“I am only ashamed in your presence,” Susan said.

“I would take your curse away,” the voice of the Queen came from behind the veil.

“No,” Susan said. “I live with it now. It’s part of me. I’ll be fine.”

“So much to accommodate. How did you win?”

“I made the Red Haux believe it was with his powers, but all along, it was with the powers I stored in my home. I simply took it back and came here. I do not trust the Red Haux. Fighting him with a power stolen from him, I didn’t know how that would go.”

“But now you know?”

Susan nodded. “Yes, I do. And now, I’m willing to serve.”

“What’s your plan to control your powers?”

“I will return the power I took from the house, and I will release Eleanor, if she wishes to leave. I will bear it all, and I’ll try not to attract the wrath of the masters.”

“Well said,” said the Queen.

“You’ll always be welcomed here. Your exile is over. Now, you’re a daughter to the Queen, a scepter to the throne and a dreadful weapon to our race. You’ll rule by my side, and whatever you say, goes.”

Black fumes shot out of Susan’s nose, and she said, “Thank you, Your Grace.”

Susan returned home to Beatrice, Jake, Hannah, and Dena. When they asked about Janice and Vivian, she said they had to do a few things at home, and that soon, they would be coming. Susan ordered a celebration, and although Beatrice and Jake didn’t know what the celebration was for, Hannah and Dena knew.

When Dena and Hannah found Susan sitting alone outside on the front steps, they moved to sit next to her on both sides.

“The Queen has agreed to bring back your dead friends, Hannah,” Susan said. “And she’s agreed to welcome you back.”

Hannah smiled. “Thank you, Susan. But if you’ll have me, I’ll like to guard you as my princess.”

Susan looked at her. “And I’ll gladly accept your service.” She looked at Dena. “You’re free to return to your dad. You’ve been a great friend.”

Dena shook her head. “I’m fine right here.”

Susan grinned and looked forward.

“Do you think you’ll have a chance with him now?” Hannah asked, and Susan knew who she was referring to.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I might if I’m ready to kill him. After all, I’m now my curse.”