Last week, dear reader, Eldritch and Beacon teamed up to take down Becca. But the plan went awry and now Eldritch is alone and bleeding out in the hands of her enemy with Beacon nowhere in sight. Abandoned and wholly at the mercy of Becca’s insidious power, salvation seems a faint hope indeed.

Her hopes are not the only thing feeling faint, dear reader, for Becca, wearing the face of Eldritch’s paramour Theo, began her deadly evisceration and subsequent exsanguination of our young heroine. Now blood gushes from the open wound, leaving her weak at the knees.

Seeing her weakness, Becca frowns. Aware of exactly how long it should take her prey to die, she seizes Eldritch by the nape of the neck and marches her over to the park bench. Sitting her down, she places one hand down on the wound to confirm her theory while using the other to hold the girl upright. Once her probing fingers finish, she smiles and playfully whispers in Eldritch’s ear, “You almost had me, but I know my cuts and I didn’t hurt you that much.”

Shifting herself, Eldritch springs into motion as her hand lights up with a web of beams. Unable to cast the spell fully, she swings her outstretched hand containing the web towards Becca. The desperate move comes as no surprise to the blonde, who reacts instantly by raising her hand to grasp Eldritch’s wrist. Still, Eldritch anticipated Becca’s attempt to block her strike. So she twists her arm, bringing it in a short arc towards Theo!

At the last moment, Hailey diverts her attack avoiding Theo’s unprotected neck. As she falls over him, he recoils backwards and shouts, “Hailey stop!”

Gasping in surprise at how close she came to disemboweling the poor boy, Hailey drops her spell and cries out, “Oh God, I thought you were Becca!”

“It’s just me. Nothing to worry about,” says Theo with a shaky grin giving a nervous look to her hand.

Confused, Hailey asks, “What are you doing here?”

Theo frowns and sighs before saying, “This again?” Pushing her back against the bench, he whispers, “Who do you see?”

With that, the illusion breaks once again and Eldritch finds herself slumped against the bench with Becca staring into her eyes. This time she has no weapon, no energy for a spell, and no element of surprise. Becca graces her with a smile as she curls her fingers behind Hailey’s head. Then she asks once more, “Who do you see?”

Terrified, Eldritch tries to start casting a different spell. As she stumbles through the words, Becca gives her an irritated look and slaps her smartly across the mouth, forcing her to break the chant. Then she says, “I asked you a question.”

Cowed, Eldritch stammers out, “Th-theo,” through her numb lips.

Becca leans back and inhales slowly as if drinking in the word. “Theo,” she hisses, letting the syllables roll off her tongue. Shivering, she closes her eyes and savors the name as she says it again, “Theo,” her voice barely louder than a whisper.

Becca then brings her hands down to Eldritch’s wound. She probes the cut with her fingers in a practiced fashion, noting the clotting that has stemmed the worst of the injury. Then, with a dispassionate motion, she picks up her old blade and reopens the cut. As Eldritch groans in pain, she brings her blood-covered hand to her mouth and hushes the girl.

Laying one crimson finger along Eldritch’s shaking lips, she quietly says, “Shhhhh, good girl. The light’s not gone yet.” Looking down at the wound, she cocks her head to the side and continues, “We’ve a few more hours to go.” Seeing the despair mount in Eldritch’s eyes at her words she moves to comfort her with a quick embrace. When she does, she softly coos into her ear, “I’ll be with you the entire time, no need to fear now.”

The voice then deepens, taking on a male cadence as it continues, “Theo will stay with you. I will be here watching your light fade.”

Hailey struggles to find her voice, weakly begging Theo for aid until Becca cancels the illusion once more. Thrown back into reality, Eldritch struggles and once again halts at the sight of Theo. The cycle goes on until Eldritch and Hailey are too weak to fight and too drained to speak. All that remains is Becca and her purpose.

Moving away from the heroine on the bench, Becca holds one of Eldritch’s clammy hands as she lifts her crown of flowers and places it on Eldritch’s brow. Once again, she leans in to whisper to her victim, “You’re perfect.” Smoothing her cowl tight against her face, she continues, “You’re so young and so full of the light, it’s beautiful watching it drain out of you.” Anticipation mounting in her voice, Becca continues, “Before it’s all gone, I want to taste the light. Can I?”

Taking Eldritch’s non-answer as an affirmation, she gives a toothy smile and then fastens her lips on Hailey’s in a pantomime of a vicious kiss. At first, Becca is strangely gentle as she moves the inert girl’s mouth, and then she bites down. The move generates one final, desperation-fueled struggle from Eldritch. Writhing, she flails and pounds her fists against Becca’s iron grasp. The struggle continues until Becca lifts her mouth, panting from the lack of air. As Eldritch slumps back to the bench, Becca pulls away. Blood dribbles down her chin and out of the sides of her mouth as she brings her hands back up, placing them on her cheeks to savor the sensation of blood on her skin.

Gasping for breath, Eldritch lolls her head to the side. As she does, she spots a flurry of light smashing down on the park. Unable to move, she closes her eyes and welcomes the release that will accompany this attack. She does not know if she will live, die, or end up somewhere in between, but Eldritch hardly cares, so eager is she to escape the hands of Becca.

It is almost unwelcome then, that when she opens her eyes she sees her wound covered by the light and Becca on the ground. Hovering over the pond, with clear pain radiating from his eyes at the sight of Eldritch’s injuries, is Beacon. His mouth seems to move, but Eldritch has difficulty focusing.

Her eyes flicker instead to Becca, lying inert under the light. She seems almost unaware of her situation, pinned down like a bug in a trap. Instead, she is drunk on the sensation of blood as she runs her hands across her mouth, wiping away red streaks.

Then Eldritch spots her dagger as it floats to her on a platform of light. Reaching out to grasp it, her hand cannot bridge the gap until the platform changes into a hand that passes the weapon to her. Soon as it does, Belinda’s voice rings in her mind.

“Child,” Belinda sobs with relief, “Oh Hailey I thought I lost you.”

“Bel,” Eldritch exhales in relief.

As if reassured of her protégée’s condition when she speaks, Belinda’s next missive is far more businesslike, “Child we must flee. Beacon says she will only be distracted for a moment longer, once she calms down she can trap you in her illusions again and there will be no escape until she drains you fully.”

Eldritch rolls over and pushes against the bench to stand. Faltering, she almost falls straight into the wood. Then, a platform of light catches her and transforms into a crutch. Grasping feebly at the aid, she limps her way out of the park and towards the sound of sirens. Soon as she clears the grass and crosses the street, the crutch begins to flutter in and out of existence before vanishing. Collapsing to the ground, unable to go any further, Eldritch places her hands on her stomach and presses, stopping the bleeding. Then she crawls to a nearby tree and leans against it, staring back at the park.

“Bel,” sends Hailey, “am I going to bleed out?”

Belinda’s reply comes as a relief as she responds, “It is a near thing, but no. She needed to cut you again to make this injury fatal.”

At this, Eldritch exhales slowly, acutely aware of her stomach injury. Too weak to continue the conversation, she simply sits. Slowly, her eyes trace the bloody trail from where she lies now to the park.

Unable to see back into the park itself with her vision going hazy due to pain and her injury, Eldritch can only listen. She hears Becca scream in rage once before the street falls silent again. The shine of Beacon’s barriers winks out of existence a few moments later. Soon after, the sound of a knife hitting flesh resounds through the park and out into the street. Unlike the precise cuts she used before, these sound wild and unfocused as if Eldritch’s escape threw Becca into an unreasoning rage.

Slowly Eldritch takes her free hand and reaches up to remove the tiara of flowers that somehow still adorns her head. Staring at it for a few moments as she holds it in her trembling hand, Eldritch summons the last of her reserves and casts it to the side in disgust. Then, exhausted, she finally passes out.

Slowly, a young girl in a cowl shakes herself awake to the movement of the ambulance. The first thing she does, in a haze of panic, is reach up to reassure herself physically that the cowl protecting her identity remains down. Then, she glances about the interior of the rocking vehicle. At first, she notes the various medical supplies and instruments strapped down and sitting about the back of the ambulance. Then, her gaze focuses on the sole other occupant of her carriage.

A slim brunette in a business skirt and blouse stares back at her. The girl has a slightly dazed look in her eyes that compliments the manila folder slightly trembling in her hand. At the sight of Eldritch moving, she seems to shake herself out of a stupor, slapping the folder lightly against her thigh and leaning forward to offer her free hand. Then, she speaks.

“Hi, I’m Erika.” Her voice is pleasant, with the faintest hint of a Midwestern lilt to it. Dragging her protesting stomach into a sitting position, Eldritch reaches out and takes the proffered hand.

Shaking cautiously, she asks Erika, “Nice to meet you, why are you here?”

Putting on a professional smile, the girl answers, “I’m your lawyer!”

“Lawyer?” asks Eldritch, alarmed, “why do I need a lawyer?”

Frowning slightly, Erika shakes her head apologetically, “Sorry! Let me explain, I’m not exactly a lawyer at the moment. Right now, I’m your assigned mediator. I’m here to represent your interests in any capacity you need me.”

Still confused, Hailey asks, “Who assigned you? And why do I need a mediator?”

Erika starts to apologize again before catching herself with a smile. Then she huffs and says, “Maybe I should back up. I am a member of the Association’s mediation bar. We represent heroes and heroines when they interact with government bodies as a means of protecting their interests and avoiding the adversarial nature of the legal system.” Seeing Eldritch’s confused look, she lifts her hand from the folder and says, “Okay, so maybe even further back?”

Eldritch nods in reply. At the affirmation, Erika continues, “The legal system has winners and losers. Let’s say you get into a fight with some bad guy and in the middle of everything you have to knock down a building. If the owner decided to sue you or claim damages, the court would have to make a decision that either left you liable or left him or her with nothing. Worse, especially for heroes, damages are usually restricted to money. Mediation offers the chance for us to work around that system. So if your power could help with repairs, you might offer to help rebuild his or her building. Alternatively, you could help the owner some other way, doing something that allows both of you to walk away winners.”

“Alright, I get it,” Eldritch responds, “it’s a formal setting for us to have a conversation about restitution without invoking the courts.”

“Exactly!” beams Erika.

Eldritch clears her throat and asks, “But that still doesn’t explain, why do I need a mediator?”

Looking aside with a slightly guilty expression, Erika murmurs, “Well yes, about that. The short answer is that you don’t, right now.” Seeing, Eldritch about to ask her another questions Erika quickly continues, “But you will, soon-” seeing Eldritch’s concerned expression she quickly amends, “-er or later I mean!” continuing on she adds in a calmer voice, “and I would like to be, well, I would like you to be my client.”

An unexpected proposal in the back of an ambulance, how will Eldritch respond? Find out next week in… “The Mediator!”