by Natalie Reid
“Are you starving because people are too afraid to get near you, or because you’re too afraid to get near them?”
Ash gripped at a shard of the broken plate, and then quickly opened his hand so that it clattered on top of the other fragments.
Kenji crouched down so he was eye-level with him. “It is my opinion that you have been given a gift. This sight in your eye, it has as much power to save a life as it does to take it. All you have to do is tell me what you see.”
Ash’s hand curled near his cheek bone so that his knuckles covered part of his eye. His bony index finger shook as he pointed it outward. “It is bright in here.”
Kenji rose to his feet. “Would you like me to close the blinds?”
He shook his head furiously. “Bright is good.” He swept his hand in front of him. “They have not found this place yet.”
Kenji looked around his kitchen, feeling oddly proud that he had kept away the Black so thoroughly. “You’re welcome to stay here if you wish. In fact, I was hoping you would. See, I have a proposition for you.” He lowered himself to the floor and sat cross-legged, hoping to appear as non-threatening as possible. “I want you to be my sight.”
“You are not blind,” Ash pointed out. His eyes held his for a moment, but they didn’t like to stay on one object long, and continued to wander about the room.
“In a way, I feel I am,” Kenji asserted. “I cannot see what you see, and I wish to. I wish to see the people in this city that need the most help. The ones that are the blackest, the closest to giving in. If I can see that, then I might be able to help them.”
Ash’s eyes met his. “You want to know who is most shrouded in Black?” He jabbed his index finger at his own chest, the bone in his wrist poking out under a thin sheet of sallow skin. Ash pointed to himself several more times, pushing harder each time so that Kenji reached over and drew his hand away.
“Then I will save you,” Kenji affirmed.
“You will invite the shadows in,” Ash warned.
He placed his hands on his shoulders. “I have seen the Bandit. I have killed it countless times on the battlefield and watched as the left-over bodies fell from the skies. Not this time.” He pulled Ash to his feet and took a deep breath, prompting him to do the same. “This time we will fight it together.”
Chapter 5
Cabin Fever
Jessie stirred, feeling the cushions of the bed beneath her. Somehow they felt as though they were aching, like the pain in her own body had spread like a disease to the sheets beneath her, and she had not been spared their pain.
Her eyes fluttered as she tried to peel them open, fluttered like the wings of a floundering bird caught in muddy water. And with that thought she could see the bird, trapped, in danger of suffocating to death. She whimpered, wanting to run out to save it, but she wasn’t sure where the bird was. Its wing was completely coated in mud now, its red chest nearly turned black. Its shiny eye stared at her, imploring her to do something.
Jessie gasped and sat up in bed, her eyes open and staring down at her lap. At the last second, the bird’s eye had changed from black and animal to blue and human. She knew who the eye belonged to. She hadn’t been able to save him, and she would never let herself forget.
“Not gone, is it?”
Her head shot up. Ritter stood at the foot of her bed, hands gripping the metal posts at the end. Behind him, the hairy legs of a spider scampered across the ceiling.
“You were moaning in your sleep,” he said. “Not the sign of an untroubled mind.”
Jessie gripped her fists under the blankets, trying to remain calm. Ritter was right; the Black wasn’t gone. Aim must not have burned it all out. She had suffered through all that pain for nothing. The shadows may not have been as prominent as they were before, but what did it matter if they were still going to kill her?
“You’re awake!”
Jessie looked to the barrack door and saw Tom standing there with his hands gripped around the door posts. He turned back a moment, and Carver appeared behind him. The look she saw in her father’s eyes was so hopeful. Not only had his daughter been found, but he thought she was going to live, that she had miraculously recovered from the Black.
Getting to her feet, she walked over to where they stood. “It isn’t gone,” she admitted, staring down at her shoes. “The Black. It isn’t gone.” She took a deep breath and chanced a look at Tom’s expression. He looked…there was no other word for it. Devastated.
After promising Tom that she wasn’t going to run away from them a second time, she left for the snow outside, spending much of the morning slumped against one of the smaller training cabins, melting a hole in the snow. Carver and Denneck had gone out to say goodbye to her before they had to take off for the air base, yet she had given them hardly any acknowledgement save for a short nod and a half-audible, “Bye.”
Griffin sought her out at one point, bringing her a bite to eat for lunch. He took a seat in the snow beside her, remarking that it was a nice feeling to have a cousin. Jessie managed to give him a smile, and even came out of her grief to recognize him as the guy she had stolen a tablet from a few weeks back in Ritter’s apartment complex. When she admitted this to him, he had laughed, saying he was glad that the tablet had stayed in the family. Despite this moment of levity, he could tell that Jessie wanted to be left alone, and so went back inside after their small chat, leaving her to her thoughts once more.
Jessie was almost tempted to waste the rest of her humanity out on that patch of snow. Hope had raised her spirits so high just to dash her back down into the shadows. What was the point? Slowly, drip by drip, she tried to come to terms with her fate. The Bandit was not gone, but it had been pushed back. Maybe it had given her a few more weeks, even a month at life. And now that she knew that her mother wasn’t dead…maybe that was all the time she needed in order to save her.
When the sun had gone down, Carver and Denneck had returned, and dinner had been eaten, she decided to take action. Ritter had left the dinner table for the outside after Nel had refused to acknowledge a question he had asked her, and Jessie followed him out into the snow.
When Ritter heard the sound of the front door opening and closing, he turned back around and commented, “I was wondering when you’d come for me.”
“Tell me where my mom is,” she demanded in a low voice.
“You’ll never reach her,” he said, waving his hand in the air. “She might as well be dead, cause you’re never going to see her again.”
Jessie took a few more steps in the snow. She could see the black creatures hiding in the trees around them. “Tell me right now.”
“Yeah, or what?” he asked in a mix of amusement and anger. “What are you gonna to do to me, sweetheart? Run in circles around me? Stare menacingly? Oh, I know! Maybe you’ll just give up like you did when my men came to take you at BLES.”
With those final words out of his mouth, a switch had been flicked inside her, and there was no turning it off. She ran swiftly through the snow at him, and before he could react, she was jumping into him and sending them both crashing to the ground. She sent her fist sailing into his jaw, but he reacted soon afterwards and sent her body flying.
The two of them scrambled up from the snow and stared down their opponent, ready for the next attack. She struck first, hitting him in the jaw and ducking the punch he sent her way. It was clear that she was much faster than him, but Ritter was not someone to be toyed with. He lunged for her middle, and they ended back on the ground. They rolled, peppering each other with jabs and punches and clumps of frozen snow.
She could hear now that the others had come out to see what was going on. They started yelling at them to stop, but she didn’t want to listen to them. Yes, she was getting bruised and bloodied, but Ritter was getting the same punishment.
Suddenly she felt a strong pair of arms lifting her off Ritter, allowing him to get back to his feet. She quickly broke out of the hold and charged at him again.
“Jessie stop!” Tom yelled from the side.
Both she and Ritter were too much in a rage to listen to anyone but the angry voices in their heads. Ritter met her continued attack with the same fervor, giving her back everything she doled out. Now that they were back on their feet, they were moving and hitting so quickly that those around them couldn’t break in to stop them.
“I can dance all night, sweetheart,” Ritter said, shoving her against a tree.
She kneed him in the stomach and flipped them around so his back was pressed into the bark.
“You’ve got some pretty serious issues boiling up inside you right now,” he commented, ducking to avoid a punch to his face.
Finding another gear, Jessie sent her fists flying into him so fast that even Ritter was surprised. He held his arms up to protect his head, and she didn’t stop until he finally decided to lunge out at her and bring her to the ground.
“What is your problem?!” he yelled.
She swung her legs to get out of his hold.
“Why did you have to kill him?” she cried, grabbing his shoulders and shoving him into the snow.
“Who?” he asked. “The boy?” He brought his leg up and kneed her in the stomach, sending her reeling backwards. “What does that matter?” He got to his feet. “He was just a racking Potentian! He would have died anyway! He wasn’t even human!”
She tried to charge at him again, and he began to run forward as well. Carver suddenly leapt over to grab him, and Jessie found herself held back by her sergeant.
“I don’t care what they called him!” she exclaimed, trying to get free from Denneck’s hold. “They could have labeled him an animal for all I cared. He was still more human than you’ll ever be!”
Ritter managed to slip free from Carver’s grip, and seeing this, Denneck let her go as well.
“He was just a scared little boy!” she cried out, throwing blind punches into him. She doubted that their fight looked like a match between two graceful warriors. It was more like the vented rage of two broken soldiers.
“Don’t blame me for what his Protector did!” he said, punching her in the mouth.
She felt the wet coppery rush of liquid rise out of her mouth, and was about to return the favor, when the frightened voice of a little girl caused them both to freeze.
“Stop!” Nel yelled.
They ceased hitting each other to look over at the people gathered around them. Nel was standing behind Griffin, holding onto his jacket and staring at the scene before her with wide and frightful eyes.
Jessie, who was on the ground, slumped into the snow and turned her face away from Nel. The rage in her was subsiding enough to know that she should feel ashamed. Nel had looked up to her, and here she was, hitting her dad like she was some kind of raving Bandit. Ritter rolled off her as well and let his tired body fall into the rumpled snow.
Before anything more could be said, Nel turned away from them and ran back into the cabin.
“Wait, Nel!” Ritter called out after her. “I’m…”
Carver shot him a harsh look, and then directed it at Jessie.
“We’ve got enough problems to deal with without you two causing us more trouble.” He pointed back to the house and addressed Ritter, saying, “You think that’s the image that your daughter wants to have of you? And you!” he said, staring fiercely down at Jessie. “Ritter’s been asking for a fight ever since he got here. Now you’re here for one day and you give him just that. I thought you had the discipline to refrain from acting on your anger, but apparently you’re just as bad as he is! That thing in your eye is no excuse!”
Jessie bit her lip to keep from speaking back to him. It hurt her that her own father compared her to a murderer. Those words were something she expected out of her lieutenant. They weren’t supposed to come out of a father’s mouth.
“Now the both of you are going to stay out here and cool down.” he ordered. “I don’t want to see your faces back inside until you do.” He turned around and motioned for the others to follow him. As he left, he called out, “If I catch you fighting again, I’ll lock both of you in the outhouse.”
When they had disappeared into the warm light and wooden walls of the cabin, Jessie leaned on her side and spat a lump of blood out into the snow. Ritter did the same, wiping a rough hand across his mouth.
“You fight like a racking Bandit,” he muttered. His words were muffled by the blood in his mouth and the bruising of his jaw.
“I am a Bandit,” she countered in much the same voice. She shot him a look before adding, “Or didn’t you hear?”
Ritter gave out a painful laugh. “And I thought the military didn’t have a sense of humor.”
She gritted her teeth and winced in pain as she moved her arm and touched a bloody cut on the temple of her head.
“At least now my daughter can see you’re not as high and mighty as she made you out to be.”
She turned to glare at him and shot a wad of bloodied spit in his direction. It landed in the snow an inch away from his arm, leaving a red spot on the ground.
“You know,” he shot back, “you have a real knack for ruining all my plans.”
“You’re complaining to me after what you did?” She shook her head in disbelief. “Take a look at your own actions and then tell me which one of us has ruined the other’s life.”
“Hey, if you want to fight again, I’ve got all the time in the world.”
She sighed and pulled herself to sit up, leaning her back against a nearby tree.
“I think we’ve done enough damage for one night.”
“So you’re really gonna follow daddy’s orders?”
She took in a painful breath, feeling the bruising on her ribs, and then breathed out the words, “Shut up.”
The two of them sat there in silence for a few more minutes, gritting through the pain of their wounds and trying to ignore the other’s presence. Finally, the cold seeped inside Jessie’s clothes and skin so much that she knew she would freeze if she stayed out any longer. She was about to get up when she noticed something flying in the sky, circling above her. It was that same bird she had seen before she woke up that morning. It wasn’t exactly made of shadow, but something told her that it wasn’t real either.
Her eyes followed its flight until it dipped down towards the ground. A small, dark figure was standing by a nearby tree, and the bird disappeared inside of it. Jessie stared hard at the figure, not able to get a good look at it. Her heart tightened in her chest, and she was sure that if she were to walk up to that figure, she would find a set of striking blue eyes on the innocent face of a little boy.
Before the figure could move from the shadows, Jessie rose to her feet, stalking off through the trees.
“Where you going?” Ritter asked.
She stuck her hands in her pockets and didn’t look back. “Don’t wait up for me.”
Jessie climbed the fire-escape up the east-end apartment building. The moon was bright in the sky, and for the moment, the shadows were kept at bay. Sliding the window open, she silently stole into Katherine’s bedroom. Though it was dark inside, she could sense almost immediately the stale bloat in the room, and the hungry, creeping shadows that hid inside. Looking to where Katherine slept, she could see no dark creature wrapped around her, whispering evil thoughts, yet when she turned to the corner of the room, she could see its face. Terror ran up her spine, and she had to fight the urge to plug her nose at the putrid smell of fear.
It was standing there, waiting for Katherine. Jessie could see its eyes fixed on her sleeping form. It looked eerily human, pleasantly complacent as it waited for the hour Katherine would finally invite it in. Its body was more shadow than form, but its hands stood out, unnaturally long fingers, designed to grab hold and never let go. This was the monster that was waiting for Katherine.
Jessie took a step towards it, and immediately its eyes fixed on her. The pleasure she had seen on its face vanished, turned to defensive an
ger. Its eyes shown livid and the smell in the air turned even more rancid. Jessie could tell that it did not want her there. It felt threatened and would do her bodily harm if it could. She tried hard to remind herself that the creature could not hurt her. Though it was very real, it had no power over her as long as she didn’t let it in.
“I’m coming back here,” she whispered to it, careful not to speak too loud and wake Katherine. “You can’t have her.”
It hissed and raved in its corner.
“I will drive you out.”
Suddenly it came rushing at her, its fingers outstretched towards her neck. The shadows tried to lick at her skin, but it could not yet make contact. Jessie gulped and tried to summon her courage, tried to remind herself that, if she had normal sight, she would not see the creature before her, wouldn’t even feel a whisper of its touch.
Walking forward, she began to corral it back into its corner. “I know where you’re hiding. And I will drive you out.”
Chapter 6
Reluctant Partners
The next day, Jessie did not want to get out of bed. She was sore from the fight, yes, but what hurt more was the damage that she had done to herself. Carver, her own father, had compared her to Ritter, and she could only imagine what the others thought of her. Nel would probably be afraid of her, and Tom…she guessed she had shown Tom last night what kind of a monster she could be.
When she was beating Ritter, she knew what she must have looked like to him. She must have reminded him of the very Bandit he thought she could have been when he was waiting for her to wake up on that recovery bed. And she had tried so hard to convince him that she was a human, someone not to be afraid of. She had worked so hard only to have undone that work in a matter of minutes.
