The Darkening: Chapter Nine

To know the darkness is to love the light,
to welcome dawn and fear the coming night.

She finds herself moving through the woods once more. The power of her anger and hate fills her, makes her strong. Tonight she moves slowly, because her prey is not on the move, but sitting in a single room. She stops and looks into a window of that room, confident in the fact that her prey will not see her, due to the darkness of the night, contrasting with the brightness of the room the prey is in.

As she moves closer, she recognizes the prey. It is a student at the Academy named Kai. She smiles, and raps on the window and then steps back into the night. As she expected, Kai opens the window. Then she darts forward and reaches in, dragging the girl out through it, quickly slapping her hand over Kai's mouth, to muffle the scream.

She can taste the girl's fear, savors it. Then she places her hand on Kai's forehead, and pushes with all of her anger and hate. She smiles as Kai's eyes roll back up into her head, and blood begins to dribble from her nose.

"Jysella!"

Her mother's voice cuts through the fog of sleep, and Jysella sits up, blinking in the harsh glare of the afternoon sun as it streams through her window. She looks towards the doorway and sees her mother standing there. "Yes ma'am?"

"Dinner time."

Jysella gets out of bed and follows her mother to the kitchen. As she enters, she notices that her father's customary place at the table was empty. She nods to her brother and then sits down and eats. As she finishes she stands up, and looks outside noticing that it is nearly dark. "I'm going for a walk okay?"

Her mother looks at her warily. "I'd prefer it if you would change into clothes that are a little more respectable."

Jysella hesitates for a moment, and then nods her head. "Okay." Then she returns to her room. As she walks in, she presses her palm to the top of the holocron, smiling as the red hologram flickers into existence. The Custodian gives her a slight bow. "Good evening child."

"I'm going to take your advice, and test Jacen."

She turns away and starts looking for an appropriate article of clothing in her wardrobe. From behind her, a red mist seeps from the box, and floats towards her, wrapping around her legs as it flows up. When it reaches her bare midriff, it is slowly absorbed into her skin.

After a second, Jysella steps out of the clothes she is in, and then slips into a light green tunic and a darker green pair of pants. She glances into the full length mirror, and as if she is on autopilot, reaches up and rips her tunic down the middle. As she slips into her heavy brown overcloak the yellow light fades from her eyes.

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Jacen is sitting in his chair, going over some notes regarding his investigation. This is the third time that he has had to read them, as his thoughts continue to drift to Jysella and Corran at lunch. He frowns as he remembers the sheer anger and hate that rolled off of Corran. A far cry from the usual calm competence the older Jedi Master usually exudes.

Giving up, he tosses the datapad onto a table, and slips onto the floor, assuming a traditional meditation pose. Just as he closes his eyes, the door chime rings. Standing up, he walks over to the door and opens it. He smiles as Jysella is standing there looking up at him. "Hello Jysella, this is a pleasant surprise."

He steps aside, and waves her in, and she silently walks in, looking around the room. He watches her as she slips out of her cloak, dropping it on the couch, and then silently walks into the bedroom. Frowning he follows her. "Are you okay?"

She nods her head, casting a glance over her shoulder at him. Then she shrugs her shoulder, causing her tunic to slide off her arms, leaving her chest bare. She reaches the bed, and then shimmies out of her pants, slowly pushing them down her legs with her thumbs. Stepping out of them, she walks over to him, and he can't help but notice the way her hips move as she walks, then she's there pressing herself against him, and wraps her fingers into his hair.

He can feel as she tugs her face towards him, and he flows with her demands, lowering his face to meet hers. As she kisses him, she pulls him towards the bed in the center of the room, twisting around and then pushing him down onto it. As he lands on his back he looks up at her. "Jysella, I don't know if this is a great idea."

Anger flashes in her eyes. "What? I'm good enough to take to dinner, but not good enough for other things? I thought you liked me. Don't you like me?"

"Yes I do."

She climbs onto the bed, straddling his legs, a pout coming to her mouth. "Don't you find me attractive?"

Jacen glances down at her breasts, and then back up, and nods his head. "Yes, yes I do."

She leans down to kiss him once more. "Then what's the problem?"

As she raises herself from the kiss, he shakes his head, trying to dispel the confusion. "I'm not sure, this just doesn't seem right."

"But it feels right." Then she once more leans down and kisses him, as he wraps her in his arms. She pulls him into a sitting position and quickly removes his tunic, tossing it back towards the living room. Then they're kissing again, and he flips her over, pushing her down onto the bed, never breaking the kiss.

He can feel her fingers as they start rubbing his hair, and notices a small niggle in the Force. He opens his eyes, and pulls away as he sees hers staring at him, their normal color subsumed by a storm of yellows and reds. He has a second to fear, as she smiles at him. "You should have turned me down Jedi."

Then he can feel an outpouring of Force energy flowing through his brain. He recognizes what she's trying to do, and attempts to stop it, to redirect the energy. When that fails, he grabs her arms, trying to pull her hands from his head, but for all his strength, he can't get her to let go. The last thought that flows through his brain before the hemorrhage destroys his higher brain functions is to wonder when she became so powerful.

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Ben is doing his nightly jog, every night four kilometers around the outskirts of the community surrounding the Jedi Temple. It is one of his favorite activities, just the simple act of moving, the clean joy of exercise.

As he rounds the corner, coming into the last stretch of his circuit, he can see the quarters where his Master stays, and a few houses down from that, the one he shares with his parents. As he begins to run past Jacen's house, a strong surge flashes through the Force, causing Ben to stumble. Ignoring the spike of pain, throbbing in his forehead, Ben rushes to Jacen's house, pushing open the door.

He looks around, noticing an overcloak on the couch. Picking it up, he frowns, as he realizes that it is too small for Jacen, after a second he recognizes by the style and cut that it is Jysella's. Turning around, he sees that the door to Jacen's bedroom is open, and there's a piece of clothing on the floor between him and the door. Walking to it, he reaches down and picks up the light green tunic. As he looks it over, he notices that whoever opened it did so by ripping the front apart. Again, the tunic is too small for Jacen, and is a female's garment. A deep feeling of unease settles into his stomach, as he decides that the tunic is probably Jysella's as well.

Dropping the tunic back on the floor, he enters the bedroom, and can hear a muffled sobbing. He flicks the light on, and looks around the room. The first thing he sees is Jacen laying prone on the bed, a touch of blood coming from the ear that Ben can see. Then another sobbing hitch attracts his attention, and he turns and sees Jysella huddled in a corner, her bare arms wrapped around her bare legs.

He walks over to her, and places his hand on her shoulder. With a start, she looks up and tries to press herself further into the corner. Ben kneels down beside her, so he can look her in the eyes. "What happened?"

He watches as her lower lip trembles. "H-he tried to r-r-rape me." She swallows hard, and presses her head back onto her arms.

Ben sits down beside her and gently wraps an arm around shoulders, drawing her into an embrace, noting the large bruises on her arms. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"I came over to apologize for how my dad treated him at lunch, and he grabbed me and ripped my shirt off, dragging me into the bedroom. I-I didn't know what to do. I-" She once more lowers her head crying.

"What did you do Jys?"

Her words are muffled, but Ben is able to figure them out. "I fried his brain with the Force."