James woke up in the same place Jessie had been before, only the ashes were gone now. He looked around anxiously. Everything was so quiet, eerily quite. Suddenly, James heard someone moving behind the crates he had once been hiding behind. Father Cassius appeared, rubbing his eyes as he wallked cautiously towards James.
"What's Going on?" Asked James, a bit confused.
"I think they did it, James, I think they over-powered her." He answered quietly.
"What?! Well, what now then, is she even alive?!"
"If she is, my guess would be that they took her in there." Said Father Cassius, pointing towatds the vacant-looking building not far from them.
"Well then let's go!" James began to run towards the building.
"Wait, boy!" Yelled Father Cassius as he came up behind him. James stopped and turned around. "You don't know what they could be doing to her in there!"
"All the more reason we should go in!" James insisted entering the building. Father Cassius sighed and went in after him.
The room they went into upon entering the building looked exactly like that from Jessie's "house" in the "Laugh Motel".
"This looks just like..." commented James, examining his surroundings, cut off by Father Cassius' uneasy comment,
"This isn't a place easily forgotten."
"You mean this is where they..."
Father Cassius nodded. James shuddered as he crept over to where the elevator had been and where a large strange metal door stood. There was one on each side of the west wall, but he chose the left one to examine.
"She's in there, isn't she?" he asked
"She could be in either one of these...rooms." answered Father Cassius
"Let's try this one."
They slowly opened the door to a torchlit room creepily similiar to Jessie's house. Though the sides were lit well, the middle of the room was nearly pitch black. They could laughing when they first opened the door that stopped when they entered. James swollowed hard, his lip quivering.
"Are you here?" he yelled across the room, his voice cracking.
Footsteps could be heard, and Delilah came from the middle of the room, followed by Dandre, LaDominique, and Desiree, whom was holding an urn and looking quite guilty despite herself.
"Depends on who you are looking for," answered Delilah, her lips curling into a devious grin as she folded her arms across her chest. LaDominique disappeared for a moment and then reappeared with James' Team Rocket jacket.
"I believe that this would fit you better." He tossed it to James." Besides, she will not be needing it where she is going. Thsi white ceremonial dress suits her much better anyway"
James caught it and looked at it angrily,"What have you done with her!" He yelled, dropping the jacket, which Father Cassius picked up.
Dandre lit a torch near the middle of the room to reveal Jessie, clothed in a flowing white dress, shackled high on a metal pole, held up by a hook on the back so that escape was impossible. She was losing her color, coughing up blood as she appeared to be asleep. James stared on, his eyes flooding with tears, unable to move.
"Jessie..." was all that he could say. He was prepared to charge at the primaves full speed, armed with nothing but his rage when Father Cassius caught his shoulders.
"Calm down my boy, calm down."
"Yes, do calm down. We would not want to have to be kicking you out before the main festivities." Said LaDominique tauntingly as Dandre sharpened a dagger, branded with strange markings.
"That would be a shame," continued Delilah,"After all, it isn't often one's soul is dismembered."
"No! I won't let you! Jessie can't die! She-she-she... She just can't! Death..."
"...Is too good for her." James was cut off by a young voice, a girl's voice, one coming from behind him. James turned around. It was Flavia.
She walked up to the pole and looked up at Jessie, stroking the hand that lay idle at Jessie's side."She wants death, just like the rest of those scum. Give her a real punishment. Give her eternal life."
Flavia looked only ten, but she sounded far older, and more evil than even Giovanni.
"After all..."she continued, now looking at Dandre,"You've already ritually burned her memories, they lie dormant as ash in her body: Let's try something new. Let's try, "The curse of the shell". You've already done all that's necessary for it. All we do now is pierce her with the dagger of life and leave her somewhere to wake up, disoriented and completely alone, a shell of her former self."
Dandre stopped sharpening his knife for a moment and looked up at her."Yes, yes I like that!" He said to her, putting down his knife.
"No! We agreed to kill her, and kill her we must!" Insisted LaDominique.
"I like the child's idea," agreed Delilah,"Much more torturous. What do you think, Desir..."
Desiree had disappeared from sight, the urn sittiing in the place she had once been.
"Desiree?" called out Dandre.
"Well, can you believe it? She's run off! Left us holding the bag!" said LaDominique, throwing up his hands.
"It certainly appears that way, doesn't it?" commented Dandre.
This whole time, none of them noticed that Father Cassius had been whispering to James, there backs facing the Primaves.
"Well then, since the majority of us remaining agree to her eternal life, " said Flavia, drawing a green dagger from a holster around her waist,"Let us proceed." She walked up to her sister, dagger in hand, her eyes wild. Father Cassius and James looked on, James looking as if he were going to pass out as tears continued to flood from his eyes.
Flavia plunged the dagger straight through Jessie's stomache, so hard and so deep that they could all hear as it hit the metal pole. She then pulled it out visciously watching almost...happily as the blood poured from her sister's wound, staining her white dress. Jessie didn't flinch, didn't even open her eyes. But she was still breathing.
"Fools!" Yelled Father Cassius, drawing the immediate attention of everyone in the room as James only stared at the sleeping Jessie.
"You are all to die before the sun rises over the trees tomarro morning." He continued."You may think you have disabled her, but you have only stalled her and made her powers much stronger." Father Cassius laughed.
Delilah, flustered, came up to Father Cassius and roughly grabbed him by the collar, rising him well above the ground.
"You insolent garcon! Explain yourself!"
"You have made her memories, "dormant", you say?" He laughed."You, my lady, have just burned the only thing limiting the Aphotic Angels power. Before, there was a tiny nagging, a little feeling of guilt, something she could not identify keeping her civil as she showed you your pasts, prepared you for death. Now, that is but ashes." He looked at Jessie."Before, she was as Sleeping Beauty, waiting for the monsters to die, to give way, so that her prince might awaken her and take her to happily ever after, along with her people, dreaming that she herself would appear to them, dark as the Angel of Death, showing them their wrongdoings and vanquishing them mercifully.Now, she is herself bloodthirsty, the nature of the Aphotic Angel itself completely taken over when you burned her memories. I have read up on that green dagger you stabbed her with, Flavia. It will stir her memories one last time before she delivers you monsters to death." He laughed. "If I'm correct in interrpreting my readings, your death, in your minds, will last for a thousand years. But it will be to all watching as if you drop dead suddenly, without cause. You don't want to be around when she wakes up."
Delilah dropped him and turned to the others, looking worried now. It was then, James noticed, that Jessie had opened her eyes.