Last chapters
tempted

A/N

sorry about the MASSIVE wait for the ending of this story....I needed to allow my idea to mature a bit. I hope you like it. Please comment if you do!!

Natural disasters are actually doors to other dimensions. Humans wouldn't know this because they would never dare to venture into the center of a hurricane or whirlpool, and likely wouldn't survive if they did.
That is why these doors are so convenient. They are impossible to for mortals to enter, and relocate themselves constantly.
Weather catastrophes exist because of this.
If you venture into one of them, as Aaron and June were doing now, you would find a door.
If you were inside the funnel of a tornado or hurricane, and were heading up to the domain of the saviors, It would be a wooden door with a brass handle. It would look old.
If you are heading down to visit the spurs, as Aaron and June were doing now, you would find a trapdoor.
It will be made of oak, it will have a brass handle, and it will be old.
You will have to ride the inside of a whirlpool, heading down, down to the bottom of the sea...and if you can survive the speed and pressure, if you last all the way down to the bare bottom of the ocean, then you will grab that handle and enter the domain of the spurs.
You will go deep into the dangerous decadent tunnels of the spurs...just as Aaron and June were doing now.

Lisa was attached to a chair by a rough rope that burned her wrists.
She was in the center of an amphitheatre and her butt hurt.
She also couldn't feel her hands, and although she couldn't see well, she knew that there were many sets of purple eyes watching her.
one in particular approached her slowly. It was a man with a mustache; he carried himself with an air of importance.
"I am sure you realize why you're here." He began.
Lisa kept her eyes closed "Are you going to kill me?"
"You get right to the point, don't you?" The man stated. "I can appreciate that. And to answer your query, no. We are glad that we have the opportunity to ask you a few questions, so we will spend some time doing that before we kill you." The man gently stroked his mustache. "I also have a strong feeling that Aaron is going to be coming for you…so we'll give him some time to get here before we do anything rash."
Lisa wished she could rub her eyes. This place was full of dust.
"Okay." She said, too confused to put up any sort of fight.
"So," The man shouted into the crowd, turning and motioning for a bright spotlight to be turned on. "We will now turn the lights up and begin the questioning."

………....................................................................
June was no more than a shadow in Aarons part of the world.
She was so far away from her own home, that she was quite invisible. All that could be detected of June was the slender silvery thread of her voice, and it could hardly be heard in the caverns of the spurs.
That thin tremulous voice talked to Aaron, it followed him through the vaulted tunnel that wound around the amphitheatre where Lisa was kept.
"Do you know where you're going?" It hissed faintly. "I think that you're a tad frantic, Aaron. You need to calm down for a moment so you don't confuse yourself. You haven't been back here in a while."
"DON'T tell me what to do." Aaron spat, darting down a tunnel You're the one who fucked everything up. And just look at you," He ranted, throwing doors open with jerky movements. "You're not upset about it at all. You destroy everything, and still remain at a distance. I wish I wasn't too disgusted to be impressed."
"You don't even have a weapon." The pixie voice remarked. "Your insults are pretty impressive, but you can't expect to use them to incapacitate your enemies.'
Aarons eyes narrowed. "I suppose you're right." He said, turning in a circle to inspect the ground where he found some tall red sticks of dynamite, on the floor. (probably used to lengthen the corridors of the underground city.)
"Strap this onto me." He'd said sharply.

..............................................................

"So you have always seen them?" The floating mustache asked Lisa, who was sneering in her chair.
"Yes."
"And have you any other abnormalities?"
Lisa rolled her eyes. "No extra fingers. But I am pretty stubborn." She felt her strength and a bit of shy bravery returning to her. "How about you?"
The mustache sneered. "I am very glad that we are getting rid of these creatures."

The crowd broke their silence to laugh.

Lisa would have come up with a sassy retort, if Aaron had not chosen that exact moment to burst into the room and steal her thoughts away.
"Hello." He'd said listlessly, apparently as befuddled by the sight of Lisa as she was by him.
The Mustachioed spur looked at him fiercely. "I can't say this isn't a tad expected, Aaron. Have a seat."
Aaron shook his head, instead choosing to rip off his jacket, revealing a set of heavy explosives.
Aaron frowned. "I know that this won't take a spirit out, but it will do some heavy damage to your tunnel, perhaps send it falling on your heads. There isn't much use being alive if you are trapped…so I suggest that you listen to me."
The spur nodded. "We will entertain that suggestion. I'll have you know that we still have this situation under control though, Aaron. Do not do anything rash. We might even let one of you go if you behave nicely."
"I am not worried about myself. My best days are behind me." Aaron laughed. "Is a couple thousand years too old for a midlife crisis?" He looked at Lisa, and she frowned deeply.

A few tense moments passed.

"You shouldn't have come here." She huffed. "This entire chain of events has been embarrassing. I keep getting myself into trouble….." Her voice fell away. "If I just had a knife."
Aaron frowned. "I'm here. I'm taking care of it. Deal with it."
Lisa rolled her eyes.
Aaron grinned. "I feel like you guys know what my plan is, so lets get this show on the road!"

...................................................................

Lisa was fourteen years old when she had gotten into her first fight.
Kristen (a low class girl covered in stolen Maybelline warpaint) had thought that Lisa made a face at her.
This jaded girl had assumed the worst insult, and had walked right over to the Lisa the loner, and slapped her across the face.
She hadn't reacted, and had instead stood there stupidly with her hand on her burning cheek. Most people wouldn't be sure what to do.
June and Aaron were pretty surprised too. They sat awestruck in the lunchroom chairs across from their human. The duo wondered how to turn the situation to their advantage.
"Turn the other cheek, Lisa." June suggested. "It is a misunderstanding. This girl isn't a bad person."
Aaron was still too surprised to speak.

"Are you going to just stand there like a dumbass, you bitch?" The girl shouted with embarrassing volume.

Lisa made a thin squeal of dismay. She was torn.
Aaron rose from his place at the table and knelt next to her.
"Hit her back." He'd said with uncommon gentleness. "Hit her right in the face. You can't let people do this Lisa. You have to fight for yourself."

"I don't take advice." Lisa moaned.
"Crazy bitch thinks she can get away with this shit!"

Aaron grunted and rose up, grabbing Lisa's fist and plunging it into the other girl's face.
It was an awkward looking punch to say the least, but it got the point across.
"There you go." Aaron said amicably, while June stared at him with disgusted amazement.

"You always have to fight."

...............................................................................................

Back in the dark, dusty amphitheater, Lisa was wondering how she could fight ropes.

June knelt down beside her whispered in her ear.
June told her what the game plan was while Aaron stood in the center of the room with fierce dangerous eyes.
"He is going to ignite those explosives he is wearing and create a distraction so I can untie these bonds and help you escape." June whispered her voice urgent and tremulous. "Once I do, I'll lead you out of here and we'll find a way to get you someplace where the spirits can't find you."
Lisa stared at Aaron as he stood in the middle of the room, his face tight and agitated. She looked at him for quite some time.
"But what about Aaron?" She said quietly.
The pixie voice hesitated. "Do you want me to tell you the truth?" It said gently.
"I always want the truth."
"The- the explosion, destructive though it may be, will not destroy Aaron. He will live to see you leave, and then the spurs will converge upon him, and assuming that he is powerful enough to fight them off for a sufficient time…." Junes tiny voice lost it's momentum.
"He is going to die?" Lisa's voice broke. "I should have assumed so. But they said that if one of us paid the price then the other could leave…"
"Are you willing to give your life for what may be a lie? Come now, Lisa." The now shrill voice admonished. "Even if you give your life for him they might not keep their promise. You can't offer any sort of distraction either, so if they don't do as they say, then Aaron doesn't have much chance of escaping. Let him do what he can."
Lisa went pale. "Untie me."
"Why?" the voice asked.
Lisa's tight lips loosened into a sad smile, she looked back at the pixie voice, right into it's eyes.
"Please, Junebug?"

The rough ropes were untied.

Aaron standing in the center of the room, saw this. He realized that Lisa could now run freely out of the room…out of the situation.
He set off the explosives with a swift motion of his hand, and closed his eyes, ready for his distraction to begin.

Lisa ran forward, she darted towards Aaron, and with arms outstretched, embraced him roughly.
He felt a pair of arms around him, the pressure of thin soft arms.
He knew whose arms they were, and as the explosives detonated, wrapping the pair in an intense cocoon of light, he opened his eyes wide to see her face.
Lisa was smiling.

The crowds of spurs in the amphitheatre began to scream, but it was silent in the cocoon.
Aaron could practically see her thoughts in that moment, her body was wrapped in them.
If one of us has to live.
I want it to be you.

.........................................................................................

So much was lost in this transaction. It was unfair. No one truly understood the terms.

And as Aaron fell to the floor in the center of that amphitheatre, blood covering the white undershirt that he wore, the room was silent.
Everyone has a certain respect for suffering.
Lisa was all around him. She was on the walls, on the floor, and at the same time she could not be reached. The only part of her that a creature like him could truly value…had been taken away.

Aaron shuddered. Lisa was soaked into his clothes and burrowing down into his skin.

The scene would have disgusted anyone who had not been so utterly destroyed.
Aarons lips parted and he made a small noise. His eyes were twitching, darting around the room.
He was looking for her.
She had muffled the explosion. How had everything gone so desperately wrong?
He made a slightly louder noise, and would have screamed had he not heard a threadlike voice in his ear.
"I told you. I told you that it would end badly. I told you that I would do this." It said. "I'm sorry. She did the most utterly good thing for you just now.." It began. The voice died away…Aaron thought it must have gone until he heard a fading echo which sounded like…

"The ship sank. I won."

Aaron soon faded away, his eyes wide and blank, staring at the crowd of spurs and waiting for the punch line. He had lost the battle for Lisa's soul, so he was destined to fade out of the great equation.

......................................................................................................

Somewhere I realized that I was dead.
I was tired.
And I was happy.

………………………………............................................................................................

Somewhere else the golden scale began to slowly tip, and June walked steadily over to it. She watched the true worth of her prize begin to show itself. She had been the one to catch the soul that tipped the scale.

She pictured god falling down from heaven, his face full of sadness as he prepared to erase mankind and give the world over to saviors.
She looked at the scale and smiled briefly, then June began to sob.
Where she had expected to feel pride and accomplishment, she instead felt a great yawning abyss that spoke with a gaping mouth and said:
"Please, Junebug?"
She was selfish. She was so dreadfully selfish. June had wanted the earth for herself. June had wanted to possess it only for her own sake.
But the idea was ruined now.
The experience of walking on the soil of earth would be poisoned. Poisoned by the memory of the woman who had shared that soil with her. The woman whom June had destroyed to acquire it.
June was so awfully selfish that she walked up to the scale and broke it. June destroyed the scale, she pulled it apart with her hands. June broke the golden scale into tiny pieces because she wouldn't be able to enjoy the world anymore.
She was sorry.

………………………………............................................................................................

Lisa was twelve and she was sleeping on her couch.
She had gotten into a fight with Aaron, and had surrendered her bedroom to him for the night. She looked uncomfortable on her couch, curled up as she was in her knitted blanket.
Aaron was staring at her. He couldn't sleep.
He looked at her for a few moments, lightly touching her hair before he crossed the room and fell asleep on the armchair across from her.

Epilogue------two months later

You are watching television in the morning, and you are bored with your usual routine of turning strait to the cartoons, so you decide to view a popular talk show.
You intrude in the middle of the show, and you see a girl sitting on a red couch near the host.
This girl's body is a patchwork of scars. They distort her features horribly, but somehow you get the impression of beauty (lost or not) from her face.
She looks at the camera, takes a shaky breath and begins to speak.
"I'm pretty much new to this. I was never the celebrity type…" She begins, grinning sheepishly. "But I only have so much time here, so I want to get my message across."
The host appears confused, having been under the impression that this girl was on the show to speak about her deformity.
"You see…" The girl continued. "God pieced me together rather haphazardly. I suppose he understood that it would be easiest for me to get public attention if I looked this way." The scarred girl shrugged. "Oh well. I was in pretty bad shape as it was."
The host smiled sadly, convinced that the girl was rambling because of some mental imbalance.
"You gotta understand. The world can't change until everyone is on the same page. So I'm here to inform all of you spirits, just in case you haven't gotten the news yet. The scale is broken. You aren't doing it anymore. And in case you want to continue with you're old routine just for shits and giggles…"
The girl grinned again, and the awkward beauty you noticed before shines brighter.
"I am going to tell everyone. I am going to tell people that you exist so they won't pay attention to you anymore. Then you wont be able to do your job even if you want to."
You're interested, and you lean forward in your sofa, and stare at the girl, who looks at you, and stands up bravely, clasping the hand of some invisible companion for support.
"Humans have spurs and saviors, most people can't see them…but I can" she begins to say.

please tell me what you think of my ending.

AND THANK YOU ALL FOR HELPING ME GET THROUGH THIS STORY BY COMMENTING AND READING.

i hope reading this made you happy...and in some parts i hope it also had the power to make you a bit sad.

please do me a favor, and tell someone about my story if you liked it. i want to make sure that even though it is complete...it doesn't die on the internet.

thank you again, ATRIX