Cursed

The clock of the city hall struck ten. People who were still at work hurried up to be done with their tasks, a few cars were going from a side to another and there was no people walking down the street. Everyone was sleeping in their warms beds, having a pleasant rest. It was the perfect moment to strike, and she knew it. The teenager stood up, rubbed her hands and walked out of the power station. She usually didn’t care about the time when she thought of looking for prisoners, but she had to admit that night made things much easier, and quite fun. Not making any noise, she walked towards the city nearby, down a hill. Wind took some scents, some sounds which made her smile… the scent of thousands of cells awaiting her to be opened, the screams of desperate people begging her to come to them. The teenager had an urge of arriving soon, but she decided to think a bit who she would set free first.

“A single? No, I did yesterday… What about a family?”

Blitz smirked. A family… It had been a week since she killed the last one. Lies and corruption went from parents to children… It was inside their gens, like the eye color or the tone of their skin. She nodded satisfied and teleported to a square. There, she looked around to see which street she’d go to. “I’ll go to the left one…”, she thought. Everything was silent except for the soft sound of a page of a newspaper flying nearby. Any house would be fine, although she preferred to have a look before going in. When she saw a house she liked, she got into the wall and passed through. After that, she looked for the ones who lived there. She saw a man and a woman in the small living room watching the TV, probably a movie. She became tangible, after which she approached to them rubbing her hands. The electric sparks attracted their attention and made the spouses turn their heads, only to watch in horror how a white-skinned teenager with no pupils on her eyes touched them with electrified hands.

“Ride the lightning.”, were the lasts words they heard before dying.

Blitz searched for a wall socket, which she found after unplugging the TV. She put two fingers in the holes to recharge her own electric energy; the teenager had to do it if she didn’t want to faint or feel weak. Lights went off when she finished, moment she liked as the prisoners wouldn’t be able to see her until the precise moment. She went upstairs, this time to the children’s bedroom, if they had any. She was lucky: they were two, and both were sleeping. She checked the place: there were a few toys scattered on the floor, some T-shirts on a chair, a teddy bear on a shelf, a bike under the left window of the wall in front of her, a wardrobe with the doors half-opened, and two beds, one with pink blankets and the other one with blue ones. The children looked to be eight and ten, respectively. The girl was smiling, enjoying her dream, while her brother was more serious. Blitz tiled her head, thinking on who would go first. The ghost finally went towards the boy, removed the sheets and stared at him, sick smile on her face. He was so cute, sleeping on his right side and rolling in his sleep…

She electrocuted him, saying the same as she did to his parents.

The boy’s scream woke the girl up, who, after realizing what was going on, stared at her with tears on her eyes, crawling back. Blitz noticed and turned around slowly with a death smile. The vision of a person with white skin and silver eyes in the dark made the girl scream and cover her face with her little shaking hands. “Don’t be sad, you’ll be with him soon, like your parents and the rest of the prisoners I’ve released…”, she walked to her, but the sirens of a police car told her it was time to leave. She growled pissed, but she had no option. “I’ll be back one day…”, she patted the girl’s head before teleporting to a random house.

She appeared in the middle of an untidy kitchen, on the table where the family was having a birthday party. She took two knives and stabbed the parents in their chests, as she let the electricity flow and give them a strong electroshock that killed them almost instantly in front of the terrified child. The little one ran away crying, though he tripped a few meters away. Blitz caught him up with no problem, crouched down next to him and poked his cheeks with the index fingers. “Where do think… you’re… going~?”, she left out a short laugher before putting the whole palm on the boy’s face. He looked at her, asking for life or, maybe, a reason. “Ride the lightning, and be free…”

She wasn’t completely satisfied yet. She felt like releasing a third group, something she wasn’t used to do; nonetheless, it was a special day, four months after her own freeing, so… Why not? Her last targets were two grandparents and a teenager who went to spend the night while his parents were out. After that last killing, Blitz thought it was enough for that day and went back to the power plant. She lied down and slept with a big grin.

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The next day, Blitz woke up much earlier than usual. It was daytime, birds were warbling, the air had the scent of flowers and it was warm. She was used to daylight but seeing she was awake so early shocked her. She blinked twice, looked around and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe it was a noise…”, she shrugged. She closed her eyes, put her arms behind her head and took a deep breath. She relaxed a bit, despite having the feeling that someone was watching her. Strangely, that feeling grew as time passed until the point that she couldn’t take it anymore and opened her eyes. She looked up and the heart of her physical form stopped beating for a moment.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”, she yelled as she rolled on a side and jumped backwards as fast as she could. Far from it, she was able to see its full body.

In front of her stood a boy, or a human-like being more exactly. Its hair was white, as well as its skin and clothes, and its eyes and mouth were black; there were no irises or teeth, just pure black. She looked at the arms of the creature and opened her eyes: those were skinless; there weren’t any muscles at all, but only black bones with slight purple hues. They looked to be burnt. About the clothes, it wore a simple short-sleeved T-shirt and normal pants. What made her feel uncomfortable was its silent way to look at her, head-tilted and a disturbing smile.

“Who are you?!”, she asked it with no response. She stared at it for a few seconds and later ignored that strange creature.

She took advantage and went out to set some other humans free in her spirit form. Walking among the crowd, she saw a man fixing the wiring at the top of a post. Blitz floated toward the wires, moved one of them and touched the electrician. The man’s shout turned everyone’s heads as Blitz laughed amused of their reactions. Calmed down, she proceeded to find more people to attack.

As she was walking, she noticed something behind her. Blitz turned around to find the white creature staring at her, as she left it at the power plant. She shrugged again and ignored it, decided to keep with her task.

*              *              *

The next two weeks were getting worse and worse. Blitz had the feeling that the creature was always following her; the ghost thought that “stalking” would be more suitable. It didn’t matter where she was, who she attacked… it was always there, smiling and watching her from behind. At first she had enough with not looking at it, but when she went to sleep she felt its eyes piercing on her, or even heard a giggle which was nothing but her imagination, or that’s what she hoped. She began checking the room to ensure she was alone before falling asleep… and that thing always appeared to haunt her. That made Blitz have lots of problems when she tried to release new prisoners; sometimes it pestered her when she was about to attack a child, and others she realized it was there when she was looking for an adult who managed to escape from her ambush. Most of the times she tried, it turned out as a disaster or not as good as she’d have liked it to be. Due to the lack of sleep and electric energy, she got weaker and weaker; she was suffering what humans passed when they were sick.
One night, she had a nightmare, one she couldn’t wake up from. In her dream, Blitz was human again, with the aspect she had in during her life. It was all black; no floor, no sky, no people… nothing. It looked she had been swallowed by darkness. Then, a voice, no, two voices came from behind. She shivered, begging it to not be what she believed it was. The voices approached, singing a depressing song that cracked her mind and filled it with sorrow. She screamed when she turned: there were two of those creatures. She took some steps back, watching those white beings coming to her, until her back hit something. Gasping, she looked at it and screamed again, tears running down her face. It was a hooded person with a black gown, with the same colors, eyes and smile the white boys had; judging by the body shape, she could tell it was a female. She started to giggle, from the giggle came a laugh, and from a laugh came loud deranged and distorted guffaws which hurt her ears, so much that they started to bleed. The creatures’ song, nevertheless, kept playing in her head, louder and louder, scarier and scarier.

The hooded one grabbed Blitz’s legs, pulled them to make her fall and laughed at her again. As Blitz unsuccessfully tried to kick her, she took out a black sickle. A sick grin appeared on her face… and then she dug the weapon on Blitz’s stomach. Blood poured from the wound; the teen’s strength faded away slowly. Eventually, she wasn’t even able to cry as her voice was gone; also, she felt blood filling her lungs, since that hooded one cut her upper. Blitz was desperate: that person was having fun of her suffering and those things were staring at her, crouching and singing that horrid song while tilting their heads from a side to another slowly.

At that moment, the teen with the sickle changed her sadistic expression to a disappointed one when she noticed Blitz wasn’t yelling, and decided to finish her. She put her hands into Blitz’s body, grabbed her guts and dragged the entire body. Blitz began yelling in pain again, fighting to not drown in her blood. When pain grew so much that she could take it anymore, Blitz lost her consciousness, which meant she abruptly woke up. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn much better:  the ghost could move her eyes, but not her body. To make it worse, she saw the white boy there… standing next to a second one. Blitz had to wait two minutes until her body allowed her to get up and face those monsters.

“Stop this!”, she yelled nervous. Seeing the white boys didn’t react, she decided to end it. “Ok, you looked for it!!”, she said as her fists were wrapped with yellow sparks. She ran towards them and punched one of the boys. Before she could reach him, it teleported behind her. She turned and repeated the action three more times, always with the same result. She growled and grabbed a fuel drum.

“Go away!”.

She threw it, along with other objects around the floor, which only made the floor be soaked in fuel. They seem to be intangible, as some of them looked to go through them, or maybe she was the one who didn’t aim well. “How is it possible?!”, she stepped back. “No, I’m not gonna give up! I won’t surrender!”, she gritted her teeth in anger. Blitz lifted more objects in the air, this time heavier ones, with her mind and pushed them with strength. No matter what she did, they didn’t seem to be hurt. “What the hell, man?!”, she shouted desperate. “NO WAY!!”

She ran to the adjacent room, where there some office furniture and boxes. She looked into the last ones and the drawers, looking for something useful. She found a little box of matches… and she smiled. She went back to the room where the monsters were, lit one and, while dropping it, she ran out of the building. Soon, flames started to spread and a dark cloud of smoke reached up to the sky. She puffed and sat down to watch the boys burn; Blitz smirked when she imagined them being reduced to ashes. After a while, she noticed no screams were heard…

She felt a breath on the back of her neck. She turned with a short yell and her eyes widely opened. Her hair stood on end. They were there. They were behind her, once again, and much closer than usual. Blitz covered her mouth with a hand as she crawled back shaking her head slowly, tears running down her face. She couldn’t believe it, it was impossible. In the end, Blitz was on her feet, shouting at them, crying in anguish, to go away. Finally, the ghost absconded, even knowing they would appear over and over again…

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It was half past ten. People went to pubs, casinos or other places to have fun after a hard day at work. Among the crowd, a black-haired woman walked lost in her thoughts. She had a quick pace even not being in a hurry. The young one was so focused on the things she had to do the next day that didn’t notice she was hungry until a fruit stand got on her way. She looked at the different options and finally picked a shiny and appetizing red apple. She paid it, went back to the crowd and bit the fruit. She really liked its taste, much better than many apples she had eaten before.

“I chose the best one, I’m sure”, Aerial smirked.

She lifted her eyes from the apple and noticed something in front of her, a bit far. In the middle of the street, there was someone standing as people passed by. Nobody seemed to notice that person’s presence…

“What’s he looking at?”, she thought, still staring at the one who stood there.

It was a mid-teen male. He had short black hair, a long sleeved black shirt, a red tie, pants, same color as the shirt, a crimson belt with a chain attached to the pants and dark grey shoes. She didn’t know why, although there was something strange on that boy… Something related to the energy he radiated. She couldn’t tell, as it mingled with the rest of the people’s, even though when she approached to him, she felt that energy was calm, but at the same time very turbulent, hostile. That was the moment when she saw his eyes: it wasn’t easy to say, but she would bet they were red. She shook her head surprised and went towards him.

A fat man who didn’t see her collided with Aerial and made her fall on the pavement. She managed to keep the apple away from the floor, even if that meant she’d have a harder fall. The woman, pissed as the man didn’t turn to apologize, sent her shadow to his face and made a little scratch on one of his cheeks. The man looked from one side to the other, confused. “Good thing there weren’t any cars at that moment…”, she growled. When she looked at the boy again, he was no longer there. Aerial blinked, not believing she had lost sight of him. “Damn it!”, she kicked an empty can. Remembering the apple, she bit again waiting for it to help her to forget about that little incident, which actually worked.

When she ate half of it, she felt like getting out of the crowded streets and go for a walk on a calmer street; the less people there were the better it was. She found a lonely place with a few cars parked on a side of the road, the mayor part of the lamppost didn’t work and the wind was soft and a bit cold. She looked up: it would rain soon, and, maybe, there would be a thunderstorm. She closed her eyes: rain relaxed her a lot, but thunders made her feel very uncomfortable.

It eventually drizzled. “Such a beautiful night…”, she thought as she was about to bite the apple once more.

Someone ran into her and surrounded her body with its arms. She let out a short scream, startled. She glared at the one who was hugging her. The astonishment was so big that she forgot about the ways she’d harm that inopportune pesterer.

“What the hell?!”

“AERIAL!! Thank Go- Eh… I’ve finally found you!”

“B-Blitz?!”, she thought at first she was mistaken. “Is it you?”

“Aerial, Aerial!”, she stopped, sniffed and hugged her tighter.

“What’s gone into you?”, she tried to release herself, but Blitz didn’t let her go.

“You must help me! They’re going after me, they’re EVERYWHERE!”

“Who?”, Aerial tilted her head and coughed. “We’re alone; there’s no o…ne here.”

“They’re white, completely white except for the eyes and mouth, which are blaaaack! They can’t be killed; they’re stalking me!”

“They’re pre-tty… much like y-you…”

“I’M BEING SERIOUS!!”, the ghost yelled with a desperate high-pitched voice. Then she took in a deep breath, held her tears and spoke again. “Please… I’m not joking. I’m fucking scared!”

“B-Blitz… Ch-Cho…king…”

Blitz gasped and released the black-haired young woman. “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”, she apologized as Aerial coughed. When she was recovered, she kept up with her request. “I can’t get rid of them. I guess they’re immortal or something. But maybe you can do something! You have to, you must!”

“Calm down…”, Aerial bit the apple. A thunder announced the imminent storm and the heavy rain that was about to fall. She looked up pretty scared; she couldn’t help it. Later, Aerial focused on the conversation in an attempt to forget about the storm. “When did it start?”

“About two weeks ago… they appear in my dreams too… singing… that song. THAT SONG!”. Blitz put her hands on her head, screaming. “IT’S STUCK IN MY HEAAAAD!”

“Blitz, stay calm, please. You need to go deeper…”, after biting the apple once more, she kept asking. “What have you done during those weeks?”

“The same as the previous four months: setting people free from their cells… from society’s prison!”

“Which means…”

“Electrocution”. Aerial opened her eyes a bit when Blitz replied. “I’ve saved men, women, children, aged people…”

“Anyone you see dies, in other words”. Aerial’s tone of voice was lower and more serious than before.

“Only those who hide behind a wall of lies and corruption; those who cheat on others as their unique way to survive. Liars…”, the white-haired ghost sighed, “Nonetheless, sometimes, I couldn’t complete the job. Part of the victims escaped, or had to be left in jail ‘cause I hadn’t enough energy for everyone.”

Aerial gasped and dropped the apple by accident, although her shadow caught it before it fell on the floor. She retrieved it, looked up to the sky and later fixed her eyes on Blitz. She leant her back against a wall under a balcony to take shelter from the rain. “So… you left broken families…”

“Well, sometimes the parents were the ones who were free, and others the kiddos. I promised I’d come back to get them out as well. At least, the ones I released won’t suffer anymore”, Blitz smiled widely and crossed her arms, proud of her task.

Aerial clenched her empty hand, gritted her teeth and bowed her head. She thought of those families that Blitz had attacked, all the suffering she had spread, the amount of parents whose family had been ruined, the amount of children whose life had been snatched even before they could enjoy it… She thought on her house, her parents, their mutilated corpses, the splats of blood, the tears running down her face, the shattered dreams, the sorrow she felt each time she saw a happy family…

The purple-eyed female threw the apple upwards towards the ghost. Blitz, surprised, took a step back and caught it with a hand. “Hey, thanks!”, she said happily. “It looks delicious! Where did yo-?”

Blitz felt a knife stabbing her neck. Aerial, with a fast move, grabbed the dead teen’s head and decapitated her. The body fell on the floor with a low splash and the head was dropped seconds later. Blood poured from the neck and the head letting a dark pool around Aerial’s boots. The Shadow Slayer took the apple from her hand and bit it again as she walked away mentally counting to ten. When she was counting nine, she faced Blitz again. When she got to ten, the head rolled towards the body and jointed again. Blitz yelled in pain as she adjusted the neck correctly until a crack confirmed she was successful. The enraged ghost glared at the silent human, who stared at her with an inexpressive gaze.

“What the fuck you think yer doin’?!”, Blitz ran to her charging a strong electric attack. Aerial, used to her strategies, dodged her easily and threw the rests of the apple at the white teen’s nose. “AUCH! How you DARE to throw garbage at mah face?!”

Blitz looked at her surroundings looking for something she could throw. Behind a car, she saw a full garbage bin, which she picked up with not much effort. Aerial jumped backwards; the bin fell in front of her, the cat which was sleeping inside almost fell on her head and the trash was scattered everywhere. The young woman’s back touched something… that grabbed her by the arms. Instantly, a strong electroshock made her body shake with a violent convulsion, although it didn’t last for long; Blitz had other plans for her.

“Take this!”, she kicked Aerial’s stomach, and later her back. “And now, another electroshock to ensure you learn the lesson!”. Blitz rubbed her hands and crouched down fast.

Aerial rolled on a side, rose and ran a few meters away. She jumped on a container, faced Blitz, divided her shadow into two and stretched her arms out. The halves of the shadow shaped as big thin cylinders when she closed her fists; later, she opened them, turned her wrists forwards and, from the cylinders, small spikes emerged. After that, Aerial turned her wrists backwards to change their shape to the teeth of a circular saw; finally, she moved her arms and the circular saws spun directly to Blitz.

“Oh, shit! OH SHIT!”, she yelled anxious.

Even though she was shocked, the ghost killer was able to move away. She sighed when the attack passed by, and grinned when she noticed Aerial had no way to defend herself until the shadow was back. It was her chance. Blitz teleported behind Aerial, grabbed her by the neck and slammed her on the asphalt. She was about to punch her, but the sound of a thunder made the ghost change her mind. Instead, she jumped backwards, raised a hand and waited.

“You’re done!”, she giggled and put her arm down quickly. A purplish white lightning came down responding to her calling…

Blitz wasn’t used to attack with natural electric energy, and hadn’t much practice directing the lightning, and so it wasn’t as effective as she expected. Aerial was lying on the road, having very violent convulsions, her skin was quite burnt and she was pouring blood from her ears. After that, she didn’t move; only low sounds showed she was still alive. The white haired teenager came to her, knelt next to her victim and raised a hand once more. “You’re going to help me!”, she said enraged, though accompanied by a slight tone of sorrow and fear. “You’ll get rid of those things for me! I can’t, but you can! Say it! SAY YOU WILL!”.

A lightning struck her hand, mixing with her own energy. Blitz smirked with a sick smile, her sadistic eyes exchanged glances with Aerial’s… and then, a gasp. The energy on her hand slowly faded until there were no more sparks. Her lower lip trembled as she looked at her surroundings, suddenly taken over by panic. Aerial didn’t understand what was going on. She couldn’t sense anything abnormal nearby. Blitz, meanwhile, covered her eyes with her hands and sobbed. She started mumbling something about “leaving”; later, it was a plea, turned into tears and screams.

“No… NOT AGAIN!”, she covered her ears and closed her eyes. “GO AWAY! GO AWAY!!”

She felt them closer… The white beings were getting closer and closer… “Please…”, she begged as she sobbed. “NOOOOO!”

Aerial heard a laugher, a voice that came from her thoughts. She closed her eyes and growled lowly; she hated her shadow’s voice echoing in her head. Then, she heard it again, but this time it said something more interesting:

“Destroy her.”. Since she didn’t receive any response, her Shadow Self repeated the message.

“I heard you the first time. It’s just that I don’t know how I am supposed to do that. I can’t move.”

“But I can.”

“What’s your plan?”

“In her chest… An intangible sphere… Don’t make me solid… It’ll end her forever…”. The voice faded out leaving Aerial alone again. The black-haired girl moved the shadow into the ghost’s chest and felt the object floating among the black fingers.

Blitz realized what she was planning. She yelled in pain, not being able to do something to stop Aerial taken in surprise. She, after a few seconds, managed to take all her strength and grabbed the shadow’s arm before it snatched her soul’s energy source. After some struggling, Blitz roared: it was about to come out. As a last resource, she electrified her palm and slapped the stealer, idea which worked. The panting ghost jumped away with a hand holding the orb that showed part of its beautiful white patterns until it was back to its place. The other fighter had it hard to stand up, and could just be knelt, very tired as well. This one looked up to her opponent, whose face was the one of a person who had seen the devil… or its worst nightmare coming true. The Shadow Slayer saw her taking some steps back, talking to nothing, until a brick wall stopped her. She put her hands on its surface, like looking for a secret switch that revealed an exit. Seeing she had no escape, Blitz teleported in front of Aerial, a few meters away from her. She was shaking in rage.

“Is this your final answer?!”, she watched Aerial standing up and going down to her knees due to her loss of strength. “Ok… Fine!”. Blitz nodded angered. “I don’t need anyone’s help! I can manage by myself!”, she took in a deep breath, and then chuckled. “I see that human race can’t be saved… You’re the best example of its corruption. You can’t live freely, afraid of your own instincts, of the oppressing Shadow Self inside you. You’re in a cage of lies that you can’t escape from! Or maybe you don’t want to… It’s easier to live denying it!”

Aerial coughed up some blood and a malevolent smile appeared on her face, which surprised Blitz. Then, Aerial looked up, eyes fixed on Blitz’s, with a serious and cold gaze. “Maybe you’re the one who lives in a cage of lies…”

“What?”

“You’re a ghost because you can’t rest in peace. They snatched your dreams, your freedom and your life; those left an empty space in your soul…”, Aerial slowly was on her feet again, “You think it’ll heal by stealing others’ lives, others’ freedom… but it’s useless. You’ll never get them back. You’ll never retrieve what they took from you and you know it. Envy has consumed you…”

Blitz saw two white shapes on Aerial’s sides. The white creatures were staring at her with their heads tilted and that black creepy smile. She shivered at the moment she noticed they were giggling.

“Blitz… Accept it. You can’t change the world. You’re dead. Revolutions are reserved to the living.”

“Shut up… SHUT UP!”, the ghost cried. “YOU’RE WRONG! ALL YOU ARE WRONG!! YOU’LL SEE IT! YOU’LL SEE IT! I’ll set everyone free… and you’ll watch them go. You’ll be the witness of my victory! We’ll see who’s right then!”, and having said that she ran away muttering.

The black haired woman moved her shadow towards her. She couldn’t let her go, she had to stop that murderer… but she saw a hand that motioned to her to stop.

“Let her go”, a male voice told her. She looked up and realized it was the teen she saw standing in the middle of the crowd minutes ago.

“B-But…”

“Don’t worry. The Dolls will follow her.”, his calm voice and neutral expression convinced her somehow. Her shadow came back to her feet immediately.

“Dolls?”, Aerial asked, but she found out quickly. “Oh, are those the white beings she talked about?”

“Yes. They are only visible to the ones they’re stalking.”

“And… How long does it last?”

“Until she accepts her crimes. If I see she doesn’t then I’ll hunt her down myself.”

“She’s stalking me and wishes to kill me more than anything else. I won’t hesitate if I have to destroy her in order to survive…”

“I won’t stop you.”, he said, not changing the tone of his voice. Aerial felt his red eyes piercing into her soul, but at the same time… he seemed to not be as evil as she thought at first.

The Slayer let out a little moan of pain. Her body still hurt due to the electricity. “Those electroshocks…”. That pain, fortunately, was gone after the boy touched her shoulder. She looked at him surprised. “Wow, thank yo-!”, she saw he was walking away. Aerial wasn’t sure if she should say something before he left. She came up with a last question after thinking a bit. “H-Hey, what’s your name?”

The teenager stopped and turned around to face her. He stayed silent for a few seconds until he decided to reply. “Kyoto.”

The girl smiled. “Cool! I’m Aerial Balshe!”

“Aerial…”, he murmured, and then turned around again to keep walking. “Don’t let your shadow win the war.”

Aerial gasped frightened, eyes widely opened. “H-How did he…?!”, she thought as she followed him with her eyes. He fused with the darkness of the night and finally disappeared. She shook her head astonished. “It’s impossible…”, she whispered. But he knew it…

Aerial looked up to the sky, rain falling on her skin. She stood there lost in her thoughts for seconds… or maybe minutes. It wasn’t until she sneezed that she decided to go back to the mansion with her partners. It had been a long day and that short fight after the mission had tired her a lot. On her way back, she couldn’t stop thinking on Blitz and what Kyoto had said. She sighed: that would make their fight even worse. Maybe Blitz got serious at once and chose to end it all…

Nonetheless, she would be ready for it.