ROSES HAVE THORNS-Chapter 94 - Emelie’s Fury

"Mind repeating what you just said, fucker! Cause I KNOW you didn’t just say what I think you did!"

Austin, who was blasted back towards his bed, struggled to get up. One, because the impact of Emelie’s magic made him feel like every bone in his body was popping, and two, because he knew it was pointless to try and argue back. Emelie was angry. She heard everything. And there was no stopping what was to come.

’I’m fucking dead, aren’t I?’ Austin lamented as he peeked open his left eye to see just how furious she was. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

’Also, why are my sheets so wet–’

"I warned you! I fucking warned you and STILL you don’t listen! I knew you were going to do something idiotic the moment I flew away! It’s like the phrase ’take a hint’ doesn’t exist in your bird brain! If that’s how you wanna play it, fine! Now you’re gonna pay the price of your stupidity!" Emelie stepped inside the room and slammed the door shut.

’Nononono! I need to do something!’ Shivers crept down his as Emelie’s menacing aura filled the room.

Austin pulled himself up and scrambled backward, his heels catching on his rug. "E-Emelie, wait! It’s not– I was just talking, I swear! Just spouting random nonsense! Y-You’re making a big deal over a nothing burger–!"

He didn’t get a chance to finish.

CR–CRACK!

SNAP!

Emelie flicked her wrist, and the heavy oak dresser across the room lurched forward as if kicked by a giant. It slammed into Austin’s ribs, pinning him against the wall with a sickening thud. He gasped, the air leaving his lungs in a ragged wheeze.

"G-Guhaa! *Cough* Y-You’re gonna kill me?!"

"I told you I won’t kill you. But you sure as hell are going to wish I did."

She didn’t use her hands. She didn’t need to. Not for this someone this filthy. With a sharp upward gesture, Austin was hauled toward the ceiling, his limbs splayed out by invisible tethering forces.

In a blur of motion, a heavy glass globe of the earth whipped across the room and shattered against his shoulder.

"Ah, shit! F-Fuck! It hurts!"

The pressure in the room seemed to thicken, pressing against his chest until his ribs began to groan under the atmospheric weight. She slammed him down onto the floor, the floorboards cracking beneath his spine, then dragged him back up again.

"Please!" Austin sobbed as blood trailed down his chin. "Emelie, stop! I’ll never speak a word about her again! Hell, I’ll never go near her again! I’m begging you–"

"You’re begging for a mercy you never intended to show her," Emelie silenced him. Her jaw set, and the windows in the room shattered outward. A storm of invisible blades began to lash at him, bruising and battering him until he was barely recognizable. Just a heap of broken pride and torn fabric.

"P-Pleash... S-Shtahp..."

She then walked over to him and grabbed his face, green ethereal light emitted from her hands as all his cuts and bruises started to heal.

"Elmeliesh... Sh-Shank... T-Thank you–"

"Shut the fuck up." She let go of him and dropped him to the floor. "You think I’m through with you? Well think again. Cause I haven’t even gotten started."

Emelie didn’t want a quick ending. She wanted to burn in his memory why he should have heeded her warning.

"N-No! Help! Help me!"

As Austin scrambled toward the front door, Emelie’s fingers twitched.

In an instant, the room became a whirlwind of localised gravity. Right when Austin’s fingertips were about to touch the door handle, he felt a tug pulling him from behind as a supernatural force lifted him up and threw him across the room, back to his bed.

"Dammit!" Austin then reached for the edge of his bed, but the bedframe suddenly groaned and folded in half like a piece of paper, snapping his fingers back.

"FUUUCK! MY– MY HAND!"

With a sharp upward flick of her chin, Emelie hoisted him into the air. He hung there, suspended five feet off the ground, kicking at nothing.

She didn’t strike him with objects this time. But rather, she used the air itself. Each subtle movement of her eyes sent invisible "slaps" of concussive force across his face and torso. His head snapped left, then right, then back, as if he were being handled by an invisible heavyweight boxer.

"You thought she was a prize? Someone you can claim in your stupid fucking game!" Emelie stepped over the debris, her boots crunching on glass. She closed her fist slowly. Austin’s scream died in his throat as the air pressure around his chest tightened, squeezing the breath out of him until his face turned a bruised purple.

Although the ringing in his head blocked out anything Emelie said, Austin saw the pained look on her face and managed to choke out a few words through the blood pooling in his mouth. "Please... Emelie... I’m... sorry..."

"Sorry is for accidents, Austin," she hissed. She jerked her hand down, and he slammed into the floorboards with a force that cracked the joists beneath. Before he could even bounce, she ripped him back up to eye level and grabbed his face again to heal him.

"And this is no accident." She tore out the vial that he had miraculously managed to hold onto despite everything that’s happened to him.

"N-No... My... cheatcode..."

Snap

"... What did you just say? You fucking swine! You never change, do you!?"

A dozen heavy textbooks flew off his shelf and orbited him like a chaotic ring of Saturn before taking turns slamming into his stomach and thighs.

The mirror on his closet door exploded. Emelie held the silvered shards in the air, spinning them in a glittering, deadly circle around his throat. She let him feel the cold whir of the glass against his skin as she sliced open tiny cuts on his face and body.

Finally, she threw and slammed his body against the four walls of the room, treating him like a ragdoll before stopping him mid-air in front of her again.

Austin was in ruin. His eyes were swollen shut, and his breathing was a wet, rattling whistle. He tried to sob, but he didn’t even have the strength to produce tears. He just sagged in the air like a broken doll waiting for the final snap.

Reason has left Emelie’s mind the moment he said that dreadful word.

Not caring about anything or anyone, she raised her right hand high, her palm glowing with a violent, vibrating hum. The very molecules in the air began to whistle. This was the end. She was going to drop the entire ceiling on him.

Suddenly, the room went unnaturally dark.

From the corner of the room, the shadows detached themselves from the floor and rose like ink dropped into water, swirling into a tall, hooded silhouette.

"Playtime’s over, Emelie." A voice resonated.

Before Emelie could launch her final attack, the shadow-user stepped forward. In one fluid motion, tendrils of pure darkness erupted from the floor, wrapping around Austin’s broken form.

"Gary! I know it’s you, you bastard! Even at the park! What you did to Kurt! Don’t think that I don’t know it wasn’t you!" Emelie screamed in rage, throwing a concussive blast of force at Gary, but the energy passed through the darkness as if it were smoke.

"So you know my identity then? Well, no matter. He’s mine for now," Gary looked down at Austin’s unconscious body.

The shadows pulsed once, turning into a localized black hole that swallowed Austin whole. A split second later, the darkness collapsed in on itself with a soft pop, leaving the room silent, ruined, and empty. Emelie stood alone in the wreckage, her hands still trembling with a power that no longer had a target.

"Suuuu... Haaaaa." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

As the adrenaline receded, a cold, sickening wash of clarity took its place. She looked at the blood spattered across the wall and a different kind of shiver took hold.

"I almost did it." She whispered to the empty room. "Fucking hell, I actually almost did it. I could’ve ruined everything..."

The anger was still there but it was now overshadowed by a terrifying realisation. If Gary hadn’t intervened, Austin would’ve died, disappeared, and returned back to the living with something that even she couldn’t stop.

"I guess this counts as a blessing in disguise... Austin is still alive, but now, he’s broken. And most importantly, he knows. He knows what would happen if he ever chooses to act out again."

Emelie then stood up and entered the bathroom, where she poured out all the contents of the vial down the basin. Once she finished, she turned away from the wreckage she caused and left the ruined room behind.

’I should take Amy away for the time being. It’s not safe here. And Gary. I still don’t know what your motivations are, but just know when I see you again... You’re dead.’