Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 109 - Government Drones

Renan stared at the blinking cursor in the reply box for a long moment. His hands hovered over, but no words came immediately. That part. "I don’t feel well enough to be awake right now."

"..."

Finally, he began:

[Renan: Do what you need to do, Lena. Sleep if you need to, I won’t force you.]

He considered what to say to her. He didn’t know too much about her personal life, though there were clues that there were issues. It wasn’t just her behavior. There were things she said that clearly hinted to an abnormal family life.

[Renan: I won’t tell you what to do, but you have power. Narinder is proof of that, and you’ll get more. If there’s any change you’d like to make...]

He left the words unsaid. If something was bothering her, she had the power to make it change. Then, he reassured her.

[Renan: No matter what, you do have a future. If we defeat the Dark One, we’ll be demigods. If we lose, there was no point in considering a future. Therefore, look to the future with hope. You can always come here if you need it.]

...

Lena closed the chat with Renan’s name still glowing at the top, then set her phone down beside her pillow.

For a second she just stared at the ceiling fan, watching it spin. She glanced at her window. Outside, a bird was moving along the trees. She grew irritated, and shut the blinds.

"Bird... stupid lazy bird... government drones spying on me... leave me alone."

Her room was dim, just the fairy lights along the edge of her bookshelf still on, but the rest of the house wasn’t quiet.

Her mother’s voice echoed through the house. She wasn’t yelling yet, but it was a sharp and stern voice. She was talking to someone on the phone. Talking about her, probably. Lena had learned that her mother had a bad habit, a really bad habit. She loved to shit-talk people she knew to other people.

Any secrets, anything embarrassing, she’d share them instantly. Even events that did happen, she’d misremember them. Whether purposely or not, Lena didn’t know, but her ma would misremember them to be much, much worse than they were.

Even her own family.

Especially Lena.

The pressure in her chest got heavier. The more she thought about it, the worse she felt. She wanted to ignore it, but it was a thought she couldn’t get rid of. She curled onto her side, hugging the pillow.

She thought about sending another message to Renan. Something silly. Like, "Dear deer, I have discovered the meaning of life, and it is soup". That was safe. Safe and stupid. But her fingers wouldn’t move.

Suddenly, as her mind drifted to a thousand other messages. Countless random thoughts streaming through her head that she wanted to shout out loud, tell someone, tell her precious Lumi.

Dangerous thoughts she wasn’t allowed to have. About how good she felt when she killed Pocket... the rush of pleasure that ran through her as she learned that he was in fact real.

That she wants to feel blood right now, taste it. She wants to hear something whimper and scream under her hands.

The fact that her mind is rushing with the desire to go on a killing spree! She wants to kill so badly! Now, she had the power to do so, and she wanted to!

Instead, her eyes landed on the little ceramic walnut she kept on her desk. She wanted to tell him about it. She wanted to tell him about a hundred stupid little things.

Her mother’s voice got louder. It was closer now. She heard the click of heels in the hall.

Lena shut her eyes tight and focused on the faint hum of her lights. She tried to imagine herself inside Masteria again, with its endless landscapes, racist fairies, weird plots, and maybe, even Renan, Lumi. In there, she could exist without flinching.

The door didn’t receive a knock tonight. But that only made it marginally better, because she knew it could at any moment. The anxiety, the anticipation that it may happen at any second... it hurt her.

She pulled the blanket over her head and whispered to herself. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you."

...

When Lumi found himself back in Masteria, what he witnessed was remarkable. It had just been a couple hours, yet word had spread through the Observatory like wildfire, and a procession had formed. Seals, penguins, and humans alike gathered, all united with a single purpose. They flowed out of the Observatory and toward Mika’s island.

When they reached Mika’s cottage, they found her outside tending to her rescued animals, clearly startled by the crowd approaching her shores.

"What... what is this?" she asked, taking an involuntary step back.

Johno slid forward, the crowd parting to let him through. "Mika, we have come to apologize. All of us. We suspected you, feared you, were ready to condemn you, when all along you were saving our children and fighting the corruption alone. We were wrong. I was wrong. Can you forgive us?"

Mika’s hands trembled as she pressed them to her mouth. "I... you’re apologizing? To me?" She looked back at her home, then back at them. "I wasn’t sure what to think. When I saw all the ships coming over I thought I was being raided. But..."

"You saved my nephew!" a seal called out. "I thought he was dead, but you healed him!"

"My daughter too!" a penguin added. "She came back whole because of you!"

More voices joined in, each sharing a story of a child or relative saved by the witch they’d feared. Mika began crying openly, overwhelmed by the sudden affection.

"Thank you." she managed out between sobs. "Thank you for believing me."

"No." Johno said firmly. "Thank you for never giving up on us, even when we gave up on you."