The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 50: Psychosis

Part 2/2

“He won’t allow it, he won’t ever allow me to be free! I’ll just be trapped until I die! I have to get stronger so I can stop him! It’s the only way I can stop him!”

Mr. Ma began to fling his fists at Loki, and Loki began to weave through each punch.

“But there’s another way, right?! It doesn’t… Have… to be this way!” Loki grabbed Mr. Ma’s fist, but with overwhelming strength Mr. Ma used his other fist and slammed it into Loki’s jaw. A stream of blood flew out of Loki’s mouth as Loki was sent flying. Loki scraped his feet against the ground, skidding himself to a halt as he struggled to steady his breath.

Loki reached for his karambits, but then stopped himself.

Standing in front of him was the only person who supported him throughout his academic journey. The one who helped him improve his stories, improve his grades, improve who he was as a person.

Could Loki really hurt him after all he’d done?

“There has to be another way,” Loki begged to himself. Loki clenched his fist, and then relaxed it.

“But why?” Loki asked, “Why THIS route? If we united everybody together, including the Knowers and the… others, we could overpower him!”

“There’s no stopping my father with numbers,” Mr. Ma cried, “I tried doing that the second time. Look where that got me. He killed my cousins for my ‘insolence’.”

“We have powers now though! We have the artifact, we have your telekinesis, we have my…” Loki realized he didn’t know his own power. Mr. Ma shook his head.

“Can’t you see now there’s no other way?”

Mr. Ma held his hand out to Loki.

“Join me and we can both escape. Together. I promise. Just us two.”

Loki held his hand out, and the white blobs covering Mr. Ma’s face began to flicker away.

But then Loki pulled it back, his eyes waning.

“But what about Maddox? I can’t let you kill him!” Loki shouted.

The white blobs came back.

Mr. Ma clenched his fist, and then sulked like some soulless corpse.

“Loki, only two are allowed to escape this place,” Mr. Ma revealed.

Loki’s eyes widened.

“What?!”

There was a frown on Mr. Ma’s face. He spoke again.

“Once two people are left standing, he shall be summoned to collect your story. It’s the only way to get to him. If we two rid the land of everyone, maybe… no, we WILL overpower and stop the cycle.”

Loki was speechless. Was that really the only way out?

To just let others die?

“No! I would never kill another person!” Loki snapped, “You’ve gone mad!”

Mr. Ma didn’t like that. The white blobs grew in size.

“Don’t be so filled with hypocrisy. I checked your bag… A grenade was missing. You’ve killed before. Don’t lie to yourself.”

So Mr. Ma was the one who was searching through Loki’s bag.

“That’s not TRUE!” Loki screamed, “If the grenade really did kill those Knowers I would have been strong enough to make the jump back at the cave!”

Mr. Ma’s face dropped, and the white blobs began to flicker. Loki noticed this, and he grew a foreign feeling inside his heart.

That feeling of hope.

The hope that he could snap Mr. Ma out of it.

“What about your employee, Dr. Aston, huh?! Are you just going to kill him too after everything he’s done for you? You’ll just throw all of that away for the sake of escaping the cycle? There HAS to be another way!”

“...I’ve been through worse.”

“Damn it,” Loki muttered, “Who else…”

Mr. Ma suddenly began sprinting at Loki, and Loki dashed to the side. Mr. Ma stumbled and tripped onto the snow. Mr. Ma carried his head off the snow and clenched his fist so hard veins began to appear.

“Just accept this new reality, Loki. I don’t want to hurt you…”

“But you are right now,” Loki thought meekly. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind!

“What about the valedictorian, Aurora?” Loki called out. Mr. Ma’s movements began to slow. “Will you just kill her too? Everything she’s worked for to obtain her future will be wasted! That lad of her’s won’t be able to rest easy knowing that some cold, jaded man killed her in cold blood!”

“But it won’t be for nothing,” Mr. Ma wept, “It’ll be to stop it once and for all.”

The white blobs continued to grow on Mr. Ma’s eyes, convulsing and wriggling as if it were alive.

“There has to be a way,” Loki whispered.