Untold Truth

#7 Guiltrip (Part 2)

Carson swam into the room to see Skylar still with face buried in her hands. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. What should I say to her? I don’t want to scare her. She’s already been through so much loss. Speak Carson. She won’t think that you're a ghost. He said to himself. “Hey, don’t cry.” He said to make her head look up slowly at him.

She was taken aback the moment she saw Carson floating right in front of her. Her face turned pale because she thought Carson was a ghost. “C...Carson?”, she stammered. He still bore the scars that the rocks had given him. “Are you a ghost?” were the words that slipped out of her mouth. She had never seen a ghost before but she knew how they were like but he was nothing like that. She tried to do what people did in movies, by reaching through his chest but he was as much alive as she was. 

“No Skylar, I’m as alive as you are. You did it, you brought me back.” Before he could say anything else, Skylar immediately hugged him. Once Skylar broke the embrace which she was reluctant to but she knew that Carson required air to breathe. 

“How? I mean I saw you. You were no longer moving even after I used my powers on you.” Skylar struggled to catch her breath. 

“At first there was nothing but darkness and I saw a light, that light was so tempting to swim towards but I don’t know, I had the urge to swim towards. The light was tempting me to cross over. But I heard a voice from the other side, it was your voice, I heard the sound of you crying and so I had to choose and I chose to come back because I knew that it wasn’t my time yet. You were the reason I came back.” Carson explained. 

Skylar was speechless. She’s heard stories about people going to Heaven but coming back for a loved one, she never thought that someone would come back from the dead for her. She remembered the day that her mother was shot and thought of a wild thought. - If she managed to bring Carson back, maybe she could have brought her mother back. - But the timing was too late. Skylar just went in for another hug, she was glad that she had gotten Carson back. While still in the embrace, Carson felt something that he had never felt before - he pulled back and next thing he knew it, he started to multiply. 

“What’s going on?”, he and his clone said at the same time. “Hey stop copying what I say.” Skylar thought she was seeing doubles but she wasn’t. 

“Wait, Carson?” She pointed to the one where the clone had detached from. 

“No, I’m the real Carson-”, said the clone. 

The other Carson said the same thing. She thought she had gone mad but apparently she had transferred one of her powers to him when she was resurrecting him. She looked at her hands and thought if she could give him powers unintentionally, what else was she capable of. Just like everyone else who had gotten new and unknown powers, Carson continued to multiply and the more he multiplied the less he could think logically. 

Only the original-Carson could think logically so before anyone saw all the random Carson-clones floating about, Skylar told him to focus his powers and stop panicking. She told him what Clay had told her when she was struggling to control her powers. “Carson. Think of happy thoughts. Happy thoughts would calm your mind and you would be less likely to multiply.”

Carson thought of the one thing that could calm him down which was spending time with family. - The many times he had spent with Jonas and Chloe. Slowly he took control of his powers and the clones just vanished into bubbles. 

Clay had just finished briefing Tyler on what to do and also handed him the potion required to give to Skylar the moment they reached the surface, when he realized that Aria looked like she was overthinking something and there was something that she was unsure about. So after letting Tyler go and find Skylar and Carson to get Skylar back to the human world, he asked her, “Why do you still look like you have something on your mind?”

“It’s not that. It's just that after Skylar had defeated Larissa effortlessly, I dove into research and you can’t believe what I found out.” 

“What? I’ve been alive for centuries, there is nothing that would surprise me.”, Clay teased. 

“I actually met her father when I had the chance. Don’t tell father. Zayn and I took a trip to New York, diving deeper into the truth, there’s actually a chance that dad might be related to Skylar’s mother. It makes sense how she defeated Larissa, she is the only one who is capable because she is the last of Larissa’s lineage. I saw what she was capable of in the books written by Poseidon’s followers. She is capable of both good and evil, and if she ever chose to go to the evil side there would be grave consequences to pay and I wouldn’t want that for Carson. We’ve lost him once, we can’t lose him again.”

“Don’t you think you are exaggerating a little? How are you so sure that she is even capable of evil?”

“Her father is a distant relative of Cody’s father. I’ve got it all mapped out. While I was away that was not the only thing I found out. Apparently when a descendant of a God and a descendant of the Devil himself have a child, that child which is Skylar in this case has the ability to create but she is also able to cause the apocalypse. She’s a much bigger threat than we had imagined but Carson would be devastated because he only sees good in Skylar. With all this knowledge, I should warn Carson but I can’t especially when she’s been nothing but kind towards everyone.”

“Now I ask you this. - Do you really think that Skylar is ever capable of mass destruction? In the past month, she has saved many people’s lives including Carson. She had even brought him back from the dead though she knows she can’t control her powers. Not to mention that she willingly took your place when you were the main target of Larissa. The only thing that would tempt the evil in her is probably the devil himself but she’s been proven to have a power to shield herself from all these temptations. The ring she possesses is forged in Hell and acts as a shield so that she doesn’t commit any form of evil.”

“How do you know so much about the ring that she is wearing?”

“Tyler was the one who explained the main reason why Cody had gotten the ring from the depths of Hell. It was to protect her from demons. It also has another function - to shield her from any form of evil thrown at her. Skylar’s a lot stronger than you think. I know that in your many visits to the human world with Zayn, you’ve watched a lot of movies so your imaginations might have run a little wild, so I’ll excuse your wild thoughts for now.”

Clay continued to swim off back to his lair in disbelief. Then she saw Carson, Tyler and Skylar swimming towards the portal so she quickly swam to stop them to ask them if she could talk to Skylar for a short while. Skylar agreed and asked them to wait for her at the portal. Once they were alone, Aria asked her, “What is your angle here? What’s with the act, Skylar?”

“What do you mean? There are no angles whatsoever.”, said Skylar innocently. “Are you okay, Aria?”

“There has to be an angle. Every criminal has an angle.” Aria accidentally spilt the beans with that question.

Skylar was taken aback that Aria would even have that type of thought about her. “How would you ever think of me that way? I am not a criminal or a villain in this case. I think that you’ve been watching too many movies about crime.” She continued to take Aria’s hands and realized that she was looking at Carson so she told her, “I would never do anything to harm Carson, if you are worried. - Though I do have something to tell you but I doubt that you would want to know about it.”, smirked Skylar.

“No, I do want to know. Just tell me. I know I was wrong to accuse you of evil.” Aria pleaded with her. 

“Well, when I resurrected Carson, I might have accidentally given him the power of multiplication. So he could just multiply in command right now. He might have lost control of his powers when he was in your room earlier but I told him what Clay had told me when I was unsure of how to use my powers.”

“Wow. That’s great. So when am I getting my powers?” Aria was only joking but Skylar took it seriously.

“Now would be the appropriate time but since you apparently still don’t trust me so I’m not sure you would want to get my help. I mean like you’ve been stuck as a powerless mermaid for most of your life. Don’t you wish that you could just wield powers at your own command like Clay and Carmilla can?”

“I've thought about it but I wouldn’t want to upset my father.”

Before Aria could finish what she was about to say, Skylar immediately asked her, “How would this even upset your father? All he ever wanted was to protect you. And with powers you can protect yourself from any sort of danger.”

“Come to think of it, I think it is better if you get going, I hope that I can trust that you wouldn’t get anyone killed.” 

Once Skylar left, Aria felt that something was different, she felt that her arm was a little sore so she flicked her hand and out came a beam of cyan coloured light. It was more like a beam of power. She quickly swam to the only person who she can trust, Aaron, excitedly. 

Carson and Tyler finally got Skylar to transform without any pain, with the help of the elixir from Clay. Apparently they didn’t expect to see what happened before their eyes which made them have second thoughts on Cody’s allegiance to their family. They saw it with their own eyes, Cody was communicating with a hologram figure that appeared to look like Angelica. 

Though they only saw it through the glass window, it was apparently dark out so Cody wouldn’t have seen them. It appeared that Cody knew that someone was listening to his conversation, so switched it off. 

Quickly they went in before anything else that was bad occurred. Through the door they saw Elyssa and Alec who were afraid because they knew something bad was definitely going to happen because they were caught eavesdropping on Cody’s communication with someone from the spiritual realm of Hell. Just then, Cody came in and was surprised to see that Skylar was already back on her feet. Everyone was stunned that Cody wasn’t in rage though he knew that everyone had a reason to be afraid. “I think I owe all of you an explanation.” Cody said innocently. He knew that he shouldn’t be keeping any secrets from all of them. 

“Why were you talking to Angelica? As much as I enjoy a family reunion, Angelica has been a danger to our family since the beginning.”, said Tyler. “Does her causing us to turn to evil even ring a bell to you?” 

“I know what she’s done is unforgivable. But- I think you should sit down for this. And I mean all of you.” Cody continued to lead them to the living room. “For the past week, I have been trying to confront Angelica but her bargains are really difficult to settle. At first she said something about Nick trying to bring Noah over and that we should be treating the two brothers nicely. I have no idea how Nick even manages the accommodation and transportation but here’s when it gets odd. Angelica told me that Noah is Nick’s half brother, making Skylar’s friend; Jackson, a half-sibling of the current ruler of Hell.”

“How do we know if what Angelica is telling you is true?” Skylar was already anxious that Jackson doesn’t even know all this. “And has Angelica ever told Noah about any of this; the demon world and all?”

“Based on all the intel that she had been giving me. She never got to tell him. After Noah was born she had made Noah’s father forget about all the events that had happened because if anyone knew about the child, she would be in bigger trouble than she already was but when she was going to tell Noah about his family heritage when she met him, there was a complication. She found out about who he was dating. Someone who is known in the Jones family as Kylie. Now Kylie and Noah were like two peas in a pod but she saw Kylie as someone who isn’t quite Noah’s type because she only dates Noah to please her parents who had always only seen her as a disgrace. So Angelica made the two of them break up.”

“She approached  Kylie and told her to break up with Noah. She only did it to protect her son. Kylie, however, wasn’t just going to give up without a fight. Being brought up in a household of agents, she had excess to all the information of all families. So she did some digging and found out about how our family is linked to demons. I’ve also done some digging on her family and apparently she isn’t quite as mundane as we had imagined. She is actually our second cousin because our grand-aunt had an affair in the early 1900s with a family member of the Jones family. Not knowing what the future would hold, apparently. Fast forward a half a century the demon blooded, Kylie was born and she apparently didn’t know about any of this until she was 13 years old, when her powers began to spiral out of control. She also found out about how we are more vulnerable to a type of angelic blade.”

“Her father who was an ex-member of the Circle, a group of Nephilims who were born to fight demons and protect mundanes. But after the Uprising, the Nephilims broke out of the Circle in hope of bringing peace to humanity. Some took refuge in the ocean hoping that they could use their powers for good - Just as how Coaratis have used this form of old powers. The runes that the soldiers of Coaratis possess have similar powers. Each Nephilim has a blade of weapon forged angelic powers also known as a Seraph Blade. Since it was no longer in usage, Kylie took it and with it, she killed Angelica. Hence the reason why Angelica wants us to keep Kylie as far away from Noah when he does arrive.”

“Here’s when it gets complicated. I have run some tests and done some research. Since the Circle broke off, Kylie’s father started a company that has a factory that runs on lead. I think since she was young, Kylie’s parents had compared her to many people including Sapphire. Though Sapphire had been given everything on the silver platter, they have something to compare their daughter to Sapphire. She only sees Sapphire as someone who is selfish, but she knew the only thing she could do to change her parents perspective was to get with Noah because Sapphire was only dating rich guys to expand her family’s empire. Not thinking about the consequences to her actions, she deliberately killed Angelica in cold blood. She also has an exterior motive for wanting to kill Sapphire. - Revenge.”

“Do we have any proof that Kylie attempted to murder Sapphire?”, said Skylar. “Talking about Sapphire, where is she?”

“She’s up in Cody’s room. Apparently Cody drained most of her blood just to get the lead out of her system.”, Elyssa commented. At first Skylar thought the same thought as Elyssa - that Cody had turned Sapphire into a vampire. Then after much consideration, she realized that he would never do that and allow his ex to have immortality.

Before Skylar could say anything, Cody said in defense, “Just so you know I didn’t turn her into a vampire.” with his arms up as a sign of surrender and innocence. “She’s hooked up to life support and to be fair, I did call the hospital and there aren’t any rooms left for anymore patients.”

“Now that we know that Kylie might be behind this mess, the real question is where we should start investigating because at this point, we are stuck at square one which is absolutely nothing.” That was when she realized that there was another issue in the matter. “Who’s watching Sapphire?” She knew that if the person who attempted to kill Sapphire was still out there, it was only a matter of time that the news got out to the killer and finding out about the victim being found alive would only mean that he/she would try to come back to eventually kill her.

They quickly ran to Cody’s room and as Sapphire’s heart rate monitor had nothing but flat lines. They all knew what they had to do. Because there was blood everywhere, Elyssa went to the bathroom to get a cloth and found a message written in the blood from one of the blood bags. Without a moment of hesitation, Elyssa quickly got the rest to come to the bathroom. “Guys! You gotta see this...” They all came in stunned to see, ‘This is a warning.’ plastered on the walls of Cody’s bathroom. The killers knew who the good samaritan was and was now targeting them. Cody could only bury his face in his hands at the sight of the blood splattered all over the white walls of his bathroom. 

Skylar took a closer look and recognised the handwriting. She let out a gasp, “Isn’t this Ralph’s handwriting?” There’s always a perk of being the teacher’s helper. The rest of them came forward to take a closer look and they realized that Skylar was right. 

“But why would he try to kill her though?” Tyler stepped forward. “It’s obvious that he is one of the many people who hates her but not enough to kill her.”

“Maybe he was just tired of being her dog, having to obey everything that she said and the moment she dumped him, I think that was the reason why he had totally given up hope in her. But it is without a doubt that he is rough, he wouldn’t come up with this type of plan - It is unlikely that he would do this alone.”, said Cody. 

Skylar walked up to the dresser after spotting something shiny at the corner of her eye. She picked it up and realized that she had seen it somewhere before but it didn’t quite belong to the girl that was their lead suspect. She remembered seeing it in Sapphire’s karaoke room. Though it was small evidence, it was still proof that someone else was there with Ralph. Sapphire had a thing for rare gems and that the microphones were mounted with gem-like stickers, so it was without a doubt that her parents had the place mounted with gems,  including weaponry. The only people who were living with Sapphire were her sister and her cousin. Kylie was still the main suspect though Stella was also one of the suspects. When they put it together, Kylie was most likely to want to kill her cousin. “Sapphire does have a lot of enemies, just not so many friends. - Hand me a glove, would you, Tyler?”

He crouched down to get the box of rubber gloves under Cody’s sink cabinet and hand it to her. Skylar took one glove out of the box and picked up the gem, careful to not get her finger prints on it. Tyler continued to dash out to see if he could find a ziplock bag in one of the other cabinets. He opened the ziplock bag for her to drop it in, “I’ll go and run some tests to see if I can find any fingerprints on it. Do we happen to have anything that Kylie had most probably recently touched in the mansion?”

Skylar shook her head regrettably. “I think since she technically has demon blood we can just use it to our advantage.”, said Elyssa. “We can just use our powers to track if the item was mounted with these gems. She might most probably be still holding it because the drive from here to the Jones is quite a distance.”

“And what if she isn’t heading back to the Jones. She could be staking out somewhere else. And being someone who is smart, it is unlikely that she would be that stupid to keep the murder weapon.” Skylar said in defence. After binging on movies with Aria while Cody was still irresponsible, she had watched enough movies to know about how criminals and murderers move. Only someone who didn’t have a brain would keep the murder weapon.

“It’s alright, as long as Kylie was last to hold the gun, the tracking rune can give us the evidence but we might need to send you and Carson out to investigate and record proof that she had killed Sapphire.” Tyler said before he left to cast some magic on the gem to attempt to locate the owner of the murder weapon.