YOU ARE NOT A MONSTER!
- Seraphina to John
This is the 224th chapter of unORDINARY. It is one of the most iconic chapters in the series.
Summary[]
Inside John’s vine enforced Barrier, he clutches his head, telling himself that his monstrous actions were unpardonable. Sharp memories of Keon’s re-education fleet past his mind, where he was told that late-bloomers such as himself were doomed to fail. Recollections of his brutalization of the New Bostin students inundate his brain. He sees a younger version of himself, his inner monster, beating up Claire and Adrion while yelling at them to not order him around. John grits his teeth and screams at the younger John to shut up, and clouts him hard. He lifts the limp younger John, calls him a worthless brat, and raises his fist to strike him across the face once more, when in young John’s place, appears Adrion, bloodied and unconscious. Revulsed, he drops Adrion to the ground.
John’s thoughts become louder and louder. He wonders why he cannot fight the monster no matter how hard he tries. It is always someone else who ends up getting hurt. This was how it had played out with Adrion, and with his new classmates in Wellston, especially Seraphina. He hears footsteps behind him, and turns around to see his younger self, the monster, intact. John lashes out, telling the monster to get out of his head.
Outside the barrier, Seraphina can hear all of John’s cries, and she surmises that he is talking to himself. She calls out John’s name, and asks him if he can hear her. John is busy battling his monster however. The younger John smirks, much to John’s ire. John charges up to his younger form and attempts to punch him with his Lightning fists, but the attack simply passes through the younger John, as if he wasn’t even there. John doesn’t relent however, and fires a volley of electrical vines at the younger John. While John was targeting his younger self, the vines actually thrash about wildly outside his barrier, nearly hitting Seraphina thrice. Seraphina pleads John to stop fighting, hoping that her friend is listening.
Inside his mind, all of John’s attacks phase through his younger form. Seraphina tells John that he can’t reject himself forever. John cannot hear her however, and keeps up his onslaught against the monster inside him. Seraphina asks John how he can hate himself so much, when he was the one who taught her to accept herself. It pains her to see him like this. She tells John that he must exonerate himself for his past actions. John, however, cannot hear any of Seraphina’s earnest endeavours in the cloak of his mind. He bitterly wonders why the monster keeps returning again and again in spite of his efforts to destroy it. He fires a barrage of massive Electric Vines at his younger self, all of which end up homing on Seraphina, who manages to dodge them in time.
Tears fill Seraphina’s eyes, as she realizes that she’s not getting through to John. She steadies herself, and pledges that she isn’t done yet. John was the one that guided Seraphina through her darkest hour, and she was prepared to do the same for him now. Her eyes brimming with tears, she uses more power than she ever has, deciding to ignore Leilah’s advice about not overexerting herself. Temporal gears circle her, symbolic of her incredible power, and her aura glows bright. She rushes towards the barrier at breakneck velocity, her gears flowing behind her. She smashes John’s barrier with unbelievable force, managing to create huge cracks in it and even opening a hole into its interior, but also destroying her arm in the process. She heals her arm, and yells at John, telling him to break free of his dark past, and that he isn’t the same person anymore. John feels reflective damage from Seraphina’s attack, and clasps his chest as he falls to his knees. He opens his eyes and sees a ray of light from beyond his mind, and sees the younger John disappear beyond his cracked barrier. The light of hope shines bright on his face for the first time in years, paling the monster into insignificance.
Finally able to hear Seraphina, he refuses to believe that he has changed. Memories of his grievous acts flow through his brain, his bloody vanquishing of Zeke, Cecile, Isen, Blyke, Remi and Arlo, and even his attempts to destroy Seraphina. He looks at his bloodstained hands, and tells himself that nothing has changed. He was still an uncontrollable monster that hurt many people. He sees the unconscious bodies of the New Bostin High School students he defeated, and sees a wounded Claire at his feet. Tears fill his eyes, as he relives the cruel acts he committed, and Claire’s words flash through his head. Seraphina attacks the barrier with renewed strength, dealing a ferocious blow that finally pierces John’s fortress. She quickly heals her injured arm.
John holds his head, experiencing the dichotomy of Claire’s dismissal of him as a monster she wished he had never met, and the now visible Seraphina standing in front of him, trying to convince him that he must forgive himself. John clutches his throbbing forehead and cries that he never wanted to cause any destruction. John’s dark barrier flakes away into oblivion, and a crying Seraphina stands before him. Seraphina breathes a sigh of relief, now more able to convince John that he isn’t a monster. She extends her hands downwards and holds John’s own. She yells at John to look her in the eye and listen closely. She cries out, telling him he is not a monster. He had made mistakes in the past, just like everyone else.
John’s eyes open wide as he takes this in, but he snatches his arm away, telling Seraphina that he is still a monster, and the destruction he caused was proof of it. John calls himself a liar, a fake, a phony, but Seraphina interjects, telling him that he is wrong, and she doesn’t believe him. Seraphina reminisces of the times she spent with John, and tells John, that she refused to believe that everything they went through together was fake. John starts crying, tears flowing down his face freely, and he finally admits that Seraphina is right. The storm in John’s mind finally clears, and a deep calm sweeps the ravaged schoolyard. John kneels down, palms on the ground. Seraphina, with tears of satisfaction and accomplishment in her eyes, finally breathes out, closes her eyes and falls forward from her exertion. John rushes to stop her fall, calling her “Sera” for the first time in a long time. Seraphina falls unconscious in John’s arms.
Appearing Characters[]
Appearing Abilities[]
Abilities in bold and italics denote the abilities that are making their first appearance.
Abilities in italics have been seen before but have yet to be named.
Abilities in bold have been seen before but were not named until this chapter.
- Aura Manipulation
- Time Manipulation
- Memory Recall (hallucination)
- Lightning (copied)
- Barrier (copied)
- Conjure: Vines (copied, stats)
Notes and Trivia[]
- The Safe House's room number is 224.
- This episode reveals the official stats and stat spreads of John(7.5), Seraphina(8.0) and Cecile(5.2).
- John finally forgives himself.
[]
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||