(New
Charity)
¡°God damned
fey,¡± Charity thought to herself as Flynn's magic filled the area around them
with light, driving away the shadows she's surrounded him with.
She had one
last trick to pull on him, hoping it would be enough to put his mana in a
stranglehold and neutralize him from further interference.?She conjured in
the real world and cast she and the pookah back into darkness.
But this
darkness was no longer set during Flynn¡¯s trial, so long ago. She took him into
the nightmare that Callie Carson was experiencing.
They
appeared standing behind Callie, who was on her knees sobbing. When Flynn looked
around, he recognized the room they were in as some kind of basement or
dungeon. It was there he realized they were watching something from Callie¡¯s
past ¨C something that had happened to her that she was now being forced to
relive.
¡°Before you
start casting your magical lightshow, bear in mind we are not actually with Miss
Carson. Nor am I physically here. Like you were and the others remain, she is being
forced to relive a painful memory,¡± Charity smiled. ¡°We are observing her as
she watches this memory, she had tried very hard to forget.¡±
Flynn looked
at what Callie was seeing, and she was watching herself being used and abused
by a group of what he recognized as vampires. It was a disturbing scene.
Callie, naked, her body tangled with one of the vampires who was taking her,
while the others stood around and watched.
¡°She hasn¡¯t
told you about this?¡± Charity mused. ¡°Hasn¡¯t told you about what she sees as
her failure. She blames herself for this happening. Of course, she shouldn¡¯t.
These creatures robbed her of her choice when they captured her and forced themselves
upon her. But she still believes it was her fault.
¡°Her fault
because she acted recklessly. She charged into the hideout of the Midnight Gang,
or that¡¯s what the locals called them in Tucson, being that they only raided
the town at night,¡± Charity explained. ¡°Callie was sent to find out where they
were. She tracked them to an abandoned mine. Instead of sending a telegraph for
more support from headquarters, she acted on her own and tried to go into the
mine during the daytime and kill them while they slept.
¡°What she
didn¡¯t know is they had human familiars watching over them while slept,¡±
Charity said, as a new image appeared of a naked Callie being whipped and
tortured. ¡°They captured Miss Carson and presented her to their masters when
they awakened that evening. The vampires decided not to turn her right away¡instead,
they toyed with her. She was tortured and¡well¡you can imagine the rest.
¡°For three
days this went on. The vampires would torture her until she was covered with
wounds and then one of them, who possessed magical abilities, would heal her up
so she¡¯d be ready to go again the next day,¡± Charity said. ¡°On the fourth day,
when they were about to turn her into one of their kind, a team of Blackstone
detectives found the mine shaft and launched an attack. The vampires were slain,
and Callie was rescued. But she cannot escape the memories of what they did to
her.¡±
She looked
to Flynn, ¡°Surrender yourself, Flynn, and I will end her suffering. I will put
the memories back where she keeps them bottled up. Otherwise, she will continue
to relive this trauma over and over until it drives her mad. And then, to top
it off, I¡¯ll give her to the Dark One I serve, and we¡¯ll let him make some new
memories for poor Callie Carson.¡±
?
Tag Flynn
?
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