by Day Leitao
“What are you doing?” Zoe asked.
Karina put her phone back in her pocket and shrugged.
Zoe stared. “You’re weird sometimes.”
“Just sometimes. That’s good to know.”
Zoe laughed. “So, I want to hear it. C’mon, all the details.”
Karina was glad to see her friend so excited to study. “We could start with the exponential equations. There’s a trick to them.”
Zoe looked at Karina as if she were seriously ill. “No. Not that. Are you crazy?”
“I thought you wanted to study.”
“I never want to study, although sometimes I’ll force myself to. The guy, what’s his face? What happened?”
“Oh. That.” Karina looked down. “I’m not sure I’ll see him again.”
“Don’t say that. You never know.”
“He lives far. And he doesn’t even like me.” Karina was indeed feeling sad and decided to confide as much as she could her friend. “But he invited me to travel with him, and I wish I could, for the trip, but I had to say no.”
“Why?”
“I had to go yesterday, and, you know, school hasn’t finished yet, my parents—”
“Karina, I thought you knew percentages. I’m wondering which one of us has trouble with math.”
“What?”
Zoe widened her eyes as if stating some great discovery. “The test tomorrow, it’s worth twenty percent.”
“I know that. And?”
“You don’t need it.”
The words were like a brick in her head. But then, in theory she didn’t need the grade, but no way Karina would accept a B in Math for the semester. The semester only, it wouldn’t be her final grade. But there were other problems.
“Well, what about summer camp, and my parents, and—”
Karina remembered Sian saying, “excuses, excuses, excuses”. She knew it wasn’t how he’d said it, but still.
Zoe said, “Get everyone to believe you’re somewhere else, and you’re good.”
“Well, thank you, Zoe; I’ll make sure to turn back time and plan my trip. That was lovely advice. As if it were that easy.”
“I’m just saying. I can help you and tell people you’re with me. I won’t insist on Josh, but maybe you could be my guest on a video. How’s that?”
“Not sure about the video, but thanks. And it’s too late to change my mind. I lost my ride.”
There wasn’t much else to say. Karina then felt a big emptiness and regret. But then, should she really regret? She knew that going to adventures in places she knew little about could be dangerous. She didn’t trust Sian. And still, she regretted. For someone who wanted to drink up the world, she had just refused a bottle. But hey, she could still get an A+ in Math. That would maybe cheer her up. Maybe.
Zoe sat in silence. She probably wanted to talk about her own situation with Samy. Karina knew it was more about venting than anything, but it was important for her friend. She was about to ask something when a sound of scraping caught her attention. It seemed to be coming from under the bed.
“Was that you?” Karina asked.
“What?”
Was Karina becoming paranoid? Maybe not. She yelled, “Get up, get up, get out of the bed.”
Zoe got up, frowning and staring at Karina as if wondering if she was well. Karina took the flashlight from her bedside table and pointed at under the bed. There was nothing there. Definitely paranoid. Embarrassing.
Then she heard Zoe scream. Karina got up quickly and saw many different pieces coming together and forming a shape, starting to take form right in front of her door. Karina pointed the flashlight at it and started flashing it, but the light was not very strong. Because it was day, it was barely visible. Zoe was whimpering. Karina said, “Light. You need to flash lights at its head.”
The head was not very well formed. It was just a shapeless lump, but it was becoming something. Karina threw her weak flashlight and took her phone. Her fingers shook and with difficulty, she turned on the camera. It had a flash, but it wouldn’t flash many times in a row. She pointed at the thing and flashed it. The lump stopped forming. For how long was anyone’s guess. She considered teleporting, but even if it worked and if she escaped, she could not leave that kyon in her house with her friend and her mother. She had to think fast. Zoe was paralyzed in fear.
Karina yelled. “Take your phone, point lights at its head!”
“It doesn’t have a head.” Her voice was shaky and low.
“At it then.”
That thing had to come back from where it’d come from. There was a way to take it back, but the idea was terrifying. The thing was taking form now and had arms and a sort of head. Karina swallowed. Zoe screamed.
Karina waited for the light on her phone and flashed at it. It stopped forming. She said, “Light. Light on it. Please.”
There was no other way, though. She would need her friend’s help. “Zoe, I have to go. Get on my email account. Email the summer camp, cancel it. Tell my parents I’m with you. Hope they don’t want to talk to me. I’ll be back.”
“The password?”
What? Of course. For the email. Karina cringed. “hotkarina333 all together. No caps.”
Zoe got her phone and pointed to the thing. But the light was too soft. Why hadn’t Karina assembled her professional photoflash? No time to think. She flashed the phone light at the thing, threw the phone to her friend, and walked to the kyon. She had to overcome her disgust and horror and hold the part where she thought its hand should be. The thing grabbed her, and it hurt. She wanted to scream, but instead, she closed her eyes, and thought about the ruins of a janky old tower, trying to forget that there could be more of those things there, that it could be immersed in fog, and that she would have no idea how to find anyone she knew. At that moment, she was focused on saving her friend. At least if in Whyland she had more magic, she could perhaps do something better than just pointing lights at it. The thing was slimy and disgusting on her hand.
She thought about Whyland, about Cayla, Darian, Sian. Maybe there was a chance that she would find him. Nothing happened in terms of teleporting. The thing was now becoming amorphous again, and Karina felt a cold, slimy paste going up her arms. Karina had never felt so much disgust in her entire life and feared being completely covered in that thing. She hoped that the lights from teleporting would slow it down. And then she would have to figure out the rest. She had to teleport. Sian, Sian, she focused on him and pictured his smirking face clearly. The floor beneath her moved. Through her eyelids, she felt flashes of light, and the thing stopped squeezing her hand. She didn’t let go of it because she feared it would stay in her apartment. Regardless, part of it enveloped her arm already. Karina squeezed her eyes shut, hoping there would be no more forms waiting for her, and that maybe she could do something against that thing in Whyland.
When Karina felt floor beneath her, she heard laughter and a voice: “You got a new friend already?”
Sian! That was a lot more than she had hoped.
7
The Tower
Karina opened her eyes and saw Sian laughing while he stuck a huge mace in the thing and twisted it. He was calm but focused, moving his mace in an eight shape. The thing burst into pieces, including the part that had been glued to her arm, and it was like ripping a band-aid. Karina was expecting the pieces to come together again, but they started to melt as if they had been made of ice. Karina was so thankful Sian was there to help her, she would have hugged him if she didn't fear he'd tease her.
She asked, “What are you doing here?”
He looked up nonchalant. “Don’t know. Taking a stroll.” He stared at her. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Were you…” That could not be. “Waiting for me?”
He waved his hands. “No, Karina, I was just passing by. Now, I’m not going to lie and pretend I wasn’t hoping you’d jump in my arms and call me your hero. A guy can hope, right? But I was expectin
g at least some appreciation.”
Karina was so glad to see him that she didn’t mind his teasing. “Thank you. I didn’t expect you’d wait for me. I’m surprised, that’s all.”
“It’s fine. I should be guarding here so that they wouldn’t come to your world. What a lousy job.” He smiled. “Or maybe I had it all planned so you would come back. No, I’d never think you’d teleport with it. Well played.”
“Not really. If you weren’t here…” Karina didn’t want to think about it.
He stepped closer and stared at her. “Maybe deep down you know me better than you think you do. You knew I was going to be here.”
Karina wasn't sure of that. But she had to plan what to do next. “I can’t go back. Not with these things after me. You’ve asked me to stay before. Does the offer still hold?”
Sian rolled his eyes. “Do you think my offers expire? Am I not the same person?”
Karina shrugged. “You could be upset I said no before.”
“Nonsense. You were afraid, that was all. We’ll sort it all out together.”
Karina smiled. She liked him when he wasn’t trying to tease her. Maybe they could be friends and she’d be able to trust him. “Thank you.”
He smirked. “And… you’re not gonna throw yourself in my arms?”
Right. There he was again. Back to square zero. But it didn’t need to be like that. It was better to get things right from the start. Karina took a deep breath. “Sian.” His eyes widened. She continued, “Can I ask you something?”
“You say my name like that, you can ask for the Universe. Whether I can give it to you is a whole other conversation, but ask away.”
“But that’s it. We’ll have to work together, and we’ll have to trust each other. I saw what you did for me and I trust you.”
“That’s a good start.”
“Please, stop it.”
He stepped back with a puzzled expression.
Karina had started it, now she had to continue. “This joking about… I don’t know… Me throwing myself in your arms, and you pretending to flirt with me. It makes me uncomfortable.”
Sian stepped back and glared at her. “Uncomfortable.”
Karina closed her eyes. “It’s not that, it’s that everything becomes a joke, and I’m afraid that at any moment you’re going to mock me.”
“If I’m mocking anyone, it’s myself. But of course I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” The words would have sliced the air if it had been solid.
“But you don’t. Most of the time. And I like you as a friend.”
“It’s my turn now. Can I ask you to stop?”
Karina shrugged. “Sure.”
It was probably his fake drama or something. He couldn’t be actually upset at it. She hoped he would go back to normal, not the normal with a sly comment every now and then, but just the normal Sian who’d told her what to do against kyons and who had waited for her.
“We’d better get going,” he said. No smirking, teasing, or drama, which was a relief.
He was quite pleasant when he was like this. Perhaps too pleasant. Karina shivered, realizing that the weather was chilly, and she was wearing just jeans and a tank top.
“Cold?” he asked.
“A little, but it’s fine.”
“We’ll get there soon.”
They walked to the door—and stopped.
The tower was surrounded by Kyons, about a hundred of them, and it wasn't as if they were getting formed or coming off the ground. They were fully formed and looked like almost-finished clay sculptures.
Karina wanted to go back to the tower and teleport away, but the only place she could teleport was home, and she didn't want to risk a creepy army following her. The creatures stood still as if waiting.
Her voice trembled. “How polite of them to wait outside.”
“Waiting for you,” Sian said. “Somebody wants you really badly, Karina.”
“Now what?” she whispered.
Sian was calm. “These things don’t talk, so there’s no negotiation. We’ll have to do it the hard way.”
Karina no longer felt as afraid of those things as she’d felt before. “I could surrender and see where they take me.”
He grimaced. “No way. I told you if you came here I’d protect you and I don’t lie—to you at least.”
Neat. But the issue would be how he’d defeat them all, cause she sure wouldn’t be much help. And their stillness was unsettling. “What are they waiting for?”
“Us.”
“You can’t fight them all, and all I can do is run. Sorry.”
“They can’t all go through the door at the same time.” He touched his mace. “And I have this. A dark weapon for dark creatures. Stay in the tower. I’ll block the door.”
For a second Karina wanted to think that those kyons didn’t really wish them any harm, or that they’d just stay frozen in their position, and they would sneak past them. Sian raised his mace. The creatures ran to the tower. Ran. They could run now. Karina got inside, wondering how she could help. She didn’t have her phone to flash some lights, she didn’t have anything.
Sian blocked the door. He swung the mace enough to slow them down, then stuck it on each kyon to make them disappear. Karina felt hopeless and vulnerable. That was probably what people felt in sleep paralysis; they saw something terrifying and couldn’t move. Sure, she could move, but what use was it if she didn’t have any weapon? Her life—or safety—depended solely on someone else, and it felt awful. Sian held the door well, though. Perhaps that was all it would take: some time until all the kyons tried to get in, and that strange mace destroyed them. Still, the feeling of powerlessness gnawed on Karina.
Then there was a sound all around the circular wall, and it started to shake. Through the holes, Karina saw that all around them, the creatures were climbing the outer wall. If they reached the top, they would be able to either jump or climb down because the tower had no ceiling. “They are climbing! We need to get out.”
Sian glanced back, for the first time with a hint of worry. “Come. Stay close to me.”
Karina wished she had a weapon, anything, at least to try to slice them the way Cayla and Darian had done. It would only slow them down, but at least it was better than nothing. Nothing. She hated doing nothing. Then she remembered. She once had made a lift explode. It hadn’t been intentional, though. Blow up walls. Could she do it? Could she really do it? She didn’t want to be helpless and vulnerable.
“Wait. Let more of them climb, then we get out.” She was almost sure her plan was going to flop, so she added. “So there’ll be less in front of us.”
Sian shrugged and continued barring the door.
When she felt the creatures were almost on the top of the tower, she ran to Sian. “Let’s go.”
It wasn’t easy to leave the tower as there were enough things on the ground to swarm after them. And it wasn’t like when she’d been with Cayla and Darian, who were two people and could surround her. Karina tried to run and zigzag through them, but two of the creatures pinned her to the floor. She tried to forget what was happening, clear her mind, and imagine that tower exploding. She imagined that it had always been meant to explode, that its material was combustible, that the stones were made of dynamite. The two creatures above her broke into hundreds of pieces. The large spiked head of a humongous mace swung above her. Sian was close. Karina didn’t even have time to get up, as more creatures pushed her down. She imagined the tower collapsing just like the kyons who’d been above her. There was a portal there, and she thought about home, about Zoe, her mother, and about keeping those things away from them. She closed her eyes. Nothing around her mattered, only that tower being blown into millions of pieces.
A deafening boom startled her. An explosion? Really? It was hard to believe that she’d done it. Perhaps she’d just predicted it. There were three creatures around her now, becoming liquid and sticky. They soon turned into many pieces that disappeared like ic
e on a hot day. Karina got up and saw stone and pieces of kyons everywhere. The tower had indeed been destroyed. Not only any tower: a millennial tower. So far her only way home. But it had been those creatures’ way to her home as well. Unbelievable. There were still some ten or twenty kyons around them, and Sian got rid of them soon. To Karina’s horror, though, the pieces of Kyon that had been blown with the tower were joining together again, but very slowly.
“Let’s go,” Sian said.
He turned around and walked towards the woods.
Karina was soon beside him. “Shouldn’t we run?”
Sian shook his head. “Nah. They won’t reach us.”
If he said so… On the other hand, Karina had a hunch that the reason he wouldn’t run was that it wouldn’t look cool enough for him. Anyways, he had the magic or whatever mace, so perhaps there was no need for them to run. He seemed to be going in the direction of the lost castle, but Karina wasn’t sure.
After a while, he looked at her, thoughtful. “That explosion… I…”
Interesting. He had no idea she’d done it, and she didn’t want to tell him it had been her because it would sound too presumptuous. To be fair, looking back, she wasn’t totally sure she’d caused the explosion. Then she thought of all the pieces of stone that had been blown around them and worried about something else.
“Did anything hit you?”
Sian shook his head. “I blocked the pieces coming towards us.”
“You fought well.”
She shrugged dismissively, then showed his mace. “Easy when you have the right tool. I had it all under control.” He stared at her, serious. “But your way back home is gone.”
“I’ll figure something else.” Perhaps Cayla or Lylah could help her. Hopefully.
At first, Karina was still jumpy, fearing kyons would come out from the floor, or run after them. But Sian walked and seemed so calm that she stopped worrying about the creatures, and then realized she should be worrying about her near future. “Where are we going?”
“I need to find some friends. Siphoria.”
