Misty screamed in shock of the sight she saw, slowly backing away from Orion, as Adam’s smile grew larger and he started laughing like a maniac. Orion felt blood come pouring out of his mouth with a nasty taste to go with it. He felt weak, but in the struggle to save himself and the others around him, he shoved the tail out of his body, causing his anger and power to grow stronger.
He was so angry that he rushed at Adam, putting his sword through his stomach and slashing his throat. “Take that, Adam, you know evil and darkness can’t win! Light will always prevail. I was born with the power of Zeus, you were born of Hades, and so I have rightfully won the struggle today.” He coughed, holding the bloody sword in his hands. He looked down at Adam, who completely stopped moving and lied on the floor of the ruins, as he bled to death.
Gemini woke up, not having a clue of what happened. She had returned to her normal self. “Mother!” Misty and Marina cried out, “You’re all right.” They hugged her and she hugged them back.
“The evil has gone, girls, we’re safe now and forever. Thank you, Orion, for saving our lives.” She waited for a response with a large smile. There was a pause, “Orion?”
Misty looked over, “Orion?” He hadn’t said a word since he killed Adam. He breathed slowly as he shakily looked at the sword and what he had done. He had never killed anything or anyone before and at first, the feeling scared him. However, he smiled slowly in an evil sort of way when he realized that he liked what he did. Something completely took him over so he didn’t feel like himself anymore.
He turned around to face them, but there was something wrong. He had a brainwashed look on his face with an evil smile to go with it. His wound was healed by a swirl of purple darkness, and it started eating him from the inside like Adam had said. ‘The darkness is the heart’s true essence and it has already started to eat at you from the inside out.’
In this state, that was the only philosophy he was still hanging onto. Everything he had to do with the light was flushed out of his head.
Misty approached him with caution, “Are you okay?” Unable to speak a word, Orion quickly swam into the Cave of Darkness.
He personally didn’t know what he was doing since the darkness had entrapped his mind. He was taken over by the darkness and wanted to be in solitude. The darkness was tempting to turn him to the darkest side, and he was losing the fight; his inner conscience was losing the fight. Misty, Marina and Gemini searched, but couldn’t find him because the cave was so dark. They called out to him, “Orion! Come out!”
He refused to show himself; he wanted to be in solitude. The darkness inside of him wanted him to take over the world and destroy all that was good. “Go away! Leave me alone! I have to be alone! This is where I will stay!” His dark side shouted in an evil tone.
“What about Penelope?” Misty wondered, “You love her and you can return to her now that you’ve defeated the evil.”
The evil weakened for a short time as the true Orion struggled with his words, “Love… I… I don’t need love. The darkness is my home now. I must never leave the darkness.”
He screamed loudly and the entire kingdom started shaking. Orion used his new found dark powers to seal off the entrance to his new home after throwing out Marina, Misty and Gemini. He surrounded himself and his cave with darkness and dark magic. He felt the power flowing in and out of him like it was the life force that was keeping him alive. He used his power to corrupt the ocean waves, creating tidal waves and monsoons on the east coast.
As for the true Orion, he felt like a prisoner in his own mind. The darkness controlling him put his conscience into a type of prison, shocking him with the darkness as he started losing himself. He grew weaker with each hour that went by and the darkness was growing stronger.
Back on the surface, Penelope rushed to front desk to ask about Orion. “Is he back yet? There’s a huge storm outside and I don’t want him to get hurt.” Thunder continued to clash and lightning was constantly flashing. The receptionist gave Penelope the phone with Maria on the other end. “Where’s Orion?”
“Penelope, listen. There’s something that you should know. Orion has been underwater this whole time and in the center of what’s causing all these catastrophic events.”
“What do you mean, what’s wrong with him?”
“This may be hard to believe, but the last time I saw Orion, he had a tail. He’s a merman.”
“But how?”
“I’m not sure if Orion told you this, but on this trip to the Ruins, he was taking an underwater trip. I tried to warn him, but he snorkeled with only his arms to move him through the waters. In fact, not many people go to this Tourist Trap because it’s gotten a reputation for being an actual trap. People have disappeared here and in Orion’s case, I’ve finally figured out why. However, none of them have come back.”
“But Orion will. He’ll come back to me; he loves me.” She looked outside and the clouds grew darker and swirled around faster and faster with the high winds. She then heard a familiar scream instead of a thunder clash. “Orion?” It happened again. “Maria, he’s in danger. Please keep a look out for him and bring him home.”
“All right, Penelope, I’ll bring him back when he shows up. I just hope that he’s all right.”
“I know, me too. Thank you.” After she hung up on Maria, Penelope looked outside through the window. “Orion, please be all right and come back to me soon.” She prayed. Then she heard a familiar voice behind her, “Penelope?”
“Aunt Helen?” She turned around, “what are you doing here?”
“Looking for you… and Orion. Where has he been?”
Penelope looked to the side, a little nervous, “Well, don’t be mad, but Orion went snorkeling to look at some ancient ruins. I contacted the manager of the expedition, and she says Orion’s fine, but he’s in the middle of this storm.”
She stared blankly into space as it slowly sank in. She heard his scream in the thunder again and she said softly, “I knew he was bound to do something crazy judging from the way he’s been acting lately.” She smiled, “Don’t worry, Penelope, he’ll be fine.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I know Orion’s destiny is coming to a close and everything will soon shift back to normal.”
“How do you know?”
“Let’s just say that I know more about his destiny that I haven’t yet revealed to you yet.”
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