Serenay Moon
Part 48: The choice that broke my heart
©2002 Kitty Ocean


They ran as fast as their feet could carry them. The thunder roared and suddenly the rain started pouring down. "Great!" Zach cursed. "Why not?"

Behind them, a voice tried to stop them: "Stop, in name of our Queen!"

"Like hell; we're not gonna stop!" Derak yelled.

"We need a place to hide!" Moka suggested.

Mika nodded. "And a dry one too!"

Kitt pointed forward. "Look, a cave!" She then looked back. "And I don't think we have much choice too. They are gaining on us."

"Follow me." Zach ordered and ran into the cave.

When the soldiers reached the cave, they stopped. "Okay, that was easy." The General said. The soldiers laughed. "They will never get out of this cave. Come on guys, let's get a drink!" Laughing, the men walked away.

One soldier looked back. "For once I'm thankful that that cursed cave exists."

 

Inside the cave, it was completely dark. "Ouch!" Kitt said. "I can't see a thing."

Moka took the flashlight. He clicked it on, but it broke down immediately. "Dang!" He cursed and slammed that thing on his hand.

"Great, now what?" Derak asked.

Zach grinned. "Just let me take care of it." Suddenly, there was a light in the cave. It shone like it came from a small candle. "Tada!" He smiled proudly.

"Wow Zach, I didn't knew you could do that." Kitt answered impressed. She looked better, and then jumped back scared. "Zach, you're thumb is on fire!"

Zach looked at his thumb. "Yeah, of course it is!"

"Doesn't it hurt?" Moka studied the thumb.

Zach stood proudly. "Of course not, fire is my element!"

"Where did you learn to do that?" Derak asked. "And when?"

"Courage showed me this trick herself, and I said I could do that too." Zach replied.

Kitt looked again at the thumb. "She taught you this trick? How nice of her!"

"I'm not nice!" It bellowed through the cave.

Zach and his friends ignored it and Moka looked around. "Ehm... does anyone know where Mika is?"

"Isn't she here?" Kitt asked.

"Mika!" Moka called throughout the cave.

"You think the soldiers got her?" Zach added to Kitt's question.

"Mika?" Moka called again. "Mika!"

 

In the NightWing Castle, Queen BlackHeart walked through the corridors is a smiling mood. "I've put my best men on the job; surely they will not fail!" Suddenly, when she walked along an open door, she heard laughter. 'Laughing?' She thought, 'In my castle?'

Curious, she walked down the filthy stairs. When she saw the stairs, her face got loaded with disgust. Queen BlackHeart reached the kitchen. She had never been there and looked around. The woman looked at a spatula and wondered what kind of torture device that was.

At that moment, she heard the laughing again! She passed a corner and saw her best men sitting there; drinking! Queen BlackHeart felt something boiling.

"And then that guy said: please don't kill me today." One soldier joked. "My death insurance starts on Monday!" The other soldiers laughed.

"That was a good one." The general complimented.

The Queen smirked. "I know a good one too, general."

The Soldiers looked back and became pale. "Your... your majesty!" They bowed.

"The fact that you are drinking would let someone conclude you finished your job." The Queen said.

The general nodded. "Yes my Queen."

"A person would expect you would tell me that first."

"Ehm... but we aren't sure they are already death."

Queen BlackHeart was startled. "What... do... you... mean...?" She said slowly boiling.

"They ehm... went inside the Cursed Cave." The general played with his fingers.

Queen BlackHeart's pale skin looked pure red. "And you didn't follow them?!" She bellowed.

"But the cave is cursed!" A soldier tried, and had to hide from the tin can the Queen threw at him.

Boiling, she yelled at them. "There is nothing cursed about that cave! It's just as cursed as me having dinner with the DayWing!" She saw the soldiers thinking or counting out the odds. This was her elite army? "You get right back there and kill them!" The soldiers were packing their things, calmly and chattering. "NOW!!!!!!!!!!!" Queen BlackHeart added deafening.

The soldiers ran out of the kitchen and Queen BlackHeart sat down. "My King!" She sighed. "How could you have left me with these ignorant fools? If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." She stepped up and walked out of the kitchen again. Before she left, she saw a green carrot on the table. Queen BlackHeart looked around if no one would see her and then quickly grabbed the green carrot and ate it happily.

 

"Moka!" Mika said. "I can't find you! It's so dark here!"

Unexpectedly, there was a light. Mika got almost blinded, when she heard her voice. "Mika, how nice that we meet here."

Mika stepped back. "Queen BlackHeart!" She yelled shocked.

"My oh my, all alone?"

"No!" Mika lied. "My friends are just around the corner!"

"Your friends?" She asked. "How interesting that you call them your friends." Mika looked puzzled. "I think it's very brave of you to stick to them, even though they hate you."

"They don't hate me!" Mika snapped back.

Queen BlackHeart shook her head. "Poor kid." She sighed. "Didn't Moka yell at you? Your sweet Moka yelled at you!" Mika remembered that day. "And Kitt, how often hasn't she been mean to you?" Mike remembered all of Kitt's temper-attacks. Her face became sad. "And then Derak and Zach.... They never said they liked you. They just treat you like a child." Mika's face became even sadder. Was the Queen right? "Don't look so sad, my child." The Queen put her hands on Mika's shoulders.

Mika pulled herself loose. "You are lying; just trying to make me weak!"

"I didn't do that." Queen BlackHeart replied. "Your so called friends do that. They are just holding you back. You could become so much!"

"I will not betray my friends for power, if that's what you mean." Mika folded her arms.

The Queen shook her head. "I'm not here to give you power, I'm here to offer you that what you want the most in the whole world!"

"You can't give me that I desire most." Mika replied. "I already have everything I wanted."

The Queen waved with her hand. "And what about them?"

Mika turned around and gasped. This couldn't be real! Mika walked at them, and touched them. The woman hugged her. "Mika..." She smiled. "My sweet little Mika. Look how much you have grown..."

Mika got tears in her eyes. "Mom...." She smiled crying. "Dad, are you real?"

"You can make them real." Queen BlackHeart said. "You just need to do one little thing...."

Mika turned around. "And what would that be?"

 

"Mika!" Moka yelled. "Mika, where are you!?"

Zach looked around, with a stick on fire instead of his thumb. "Where could that darn exit be?" He asked himself.

Suddenly Kitt screamed. All boys turned around, seeing Kitt being trapped in a skeleton with her foot. "Get him off me!" She cried horrified.

Derak helped her out of it. "How can you be sure it's a he?" He grinned.

Kitt smacked him in the face. "Shut up!" She ordered.

"Do you think the queen got Mika?" Moka asked Zach.

"If so, than I shouldn't be worried." Zach replied and picked on of the 2 corridors that were before him.

Derak passed Moka. "Yeah, if the Queen got Mika, she would be really doomed."

Kitt giggled. "Yeah, Mika would give her a complete fashion statement!" She laughed, followed by the boys.

"But Queen BlackHeart!" Zach imitated Mika. "Black is totally out of style!"

Derak laughed. "But Queen BlackHeart, pigtails will look so cute on you!"

 

From above, Mika and Queen BlackHeart looked at them. "You see?" She asked. "They are not worried about you. They are only making fun of you."

Mika looked away with a sad face. Her parents stood behind her. "Do what your heart gives you in, my love." Her mother said.

"Whatever you choose, we are proud of you." Her father added.

 

A few hours later, Zach and his friends sat down. "I'm so tired!" Zach sighed and stretched his back.

"I miss her voice." Moka sighed.

Kitt nodded. "Me too. Whenever things were depressing, she always saw the good side of it."

"You mean that she cried like hell." Derak corrected.

Kitt looked at Zach. "Do you think we will ever find her again?" She softly asked with a trembling voice.

"Don't look further...." All looked up and saw Queen BlackHeart, accompanied by Mika in a very beautiful gown.

"Mika!" Moka cried out. "You are back!"

Mika didn't reply and looked at them with disgust in her face. "Why are you up there Mika?" Zach asked. "Queen BlackHeart, did you put a spell on her?"

"No!" Mika finally said. "This was my choice!"

"Mika?" Kitt asked. "What do you mean?"

"Don't talk to me as if we were friends!" Mika yelled. "I know what you said and what you think!"

"What did we say? What did we do?" Derak asked.

Mika became angry. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about!"

"My sweet." Queen BlackHeart said. "Let me handle this."

All couldn't believe it. "Mika, you've got to be kidding." Zach tried.

"You are beneath her!" Queen BlackHeart said. "You'll pay for hurting her." Queen BlackHeart gathered energy. "Black Kiss!" She yelled.

Mika looked up, shocked. Did she really want this to happen? "Cosmic Shield!" She yelled and shielded her friends from being hit.

Queen BlackHeart looked at her. "You traitor!" She cursed and slapped Mika.

Mika rolled down from the hill and her gown got torn. "Mika!" Moka yelled and caught her.

"And you can forget about them too!" Queen BlackHeart waved her hand and Mika's parents faded.

With tears in her eyes, Mika cried out: "Mom! Dad!"

"Mom? Dad?" Moka asked.

"This is the final stop!" Zach yelled angry. "Future Fire!" This time, the attack exploded really quickly, and when the smoke faded, Queen BlackHeart was gone.

All focused on Mika then. "Mika, are you all right?" Moka asked.

Her eyes were hollow and empty. "Just hold me Moka." She softly whispered. "Please hold me."

 

In the NightWing Castle, Queen BlackHeart walked through the corridors; burned like something that had been too long on the barbecue. She almost bumped into her daughter and her guards. "Mom?" She asked astounded. "What happened to you?"

The Queen stepped further with big steps. "Go to your room!" She only ordered and vanished behind a corner. Then Princess Vena heard her mother cursing very loud and a door got slammed shut.


End of episode 48

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