The Cosmic Princess

The Return

As I marched down those stairs to the gallows, the only thing I could feel was fury. Fury that Teelah's conniving could cut so deeply that not only did she fool us with her trickery but she also influenced us.

I would kill her.

"I'll help!" My conscience shouted with a self-righteous fist in the air. Since that day, my conscience had virtually disappeared. It had not wanted anything to do with me it seems, and I didn't blame it. However, now with the bittersweet taste of vengeance burning my tongue, my conscience had finally decided to show its face.

Behind me, I could hear everyone rushing after me wanting to get to the bottom of what had erupted my violence.

"Ike!" My sister yelled, yards behind me and sprinting for me hoping to stop me before I do something that I would never regret.

My feet thundered down the worn stairs and paused seeing Teelah hanging by her hands.

She looked completely different from the last time I had seen her. Her face was ashen and those large innocent eyes that could have suckered the most sinister villain to do her bidding were hollow and sunken in. Her tiny frame looked even skinnier...like she had not eaten at all.

I should have felt disgust or at least a little bit of anger at how the Yetherians were treating her. After all, she's still under my rule and the prince bond should be at play. However, the only thing I could feel was hatred, no loathing, pure, pure loathing.

"Well hello-" She began, but a sharp blade of water to her chains sent the frail imprisonment breaking and her face planting to the hard dirt floor below her.

"Cut the bullshit." I snarled, striding towards her like a predator would do to their meek prey. Groaning lowly, she attempted to push herself up.

The frenzied footsteps of my friends thundered down the stairs as I reached Teelah who was doing a poor job at pushing herself off the ground. Stooping down and wrapping my hands in the stringy tendrils of her hair, I yanked her head back. "Tell me the truth, and nothing but the truth. If you lie, you die Teelah."

Her eyes stared into mine, like she couldn't believe I was saying that to her.

A part of me, a very small part, that wasn't confused by this deep churning rage was shocked to by my brutish behavior. Even if they deserved it, Ike didn't put his hands on women. But despite my motto, I couldn't find it in myself to care. I wanted her hurt, in pain, damn near dead. But first I wanted the truth because the more I thought of it, the more it made sense. Around the time she was abducted, we were only getting small signs and inklings of our powers. However, I do remember one particular time when she flashed a memory of us in my mind. That was the only memory I had of seeing Teelah's powers.

"Did you use our memories to influence us? Did you hand pick out memories of ours and use them so that we would be more swayed to see you as the victim?"

Her dull eyes broke from mine, and for a few seconds she said nothing as her eyes swept over the people in the room. I turned around to see a mixture of shock, betrayal, anger, and resentment shining through all of my friends' and my sister's eyes.

"How could you?" Mist whispered the same time Kaiya glowered at Teelah with loathing enunciating each and every syllable of words. "So I was right. It's all your fault."

The shock permeating the room evaporated quickly at the sound of Teelah's laughter. We all watched as small cackles bordering around deranged chuckles left her cracked lips. "All my fault? No. It's not all my fault. Sure, I played around with your memories a bit and sure I may have even influenced you guys to side with me a little, but at the end of the day you guys chose who chose out of free will. My powers wouldn't have worked if there wasn't a seed of doubt to latch onto. No one had a weapon up to your head."