by Nicol, Andy
I shook my head as Soul ran over and placed both hands on my shoulders, disapproval and relief playing on his face all at once. I inhaled one last time and stretched out my neck, cracking it to the side. I threw my hand up and gripped the underside of my hair tightly as I grimaced. My partner sighed and I sheepishly grinned at him. His face fell into an expression of disgust, and then he smacked my arm.
“Don’t do that!” he cried in aggravation. Grinning, I coughed and wiped my lip.
“That’s my girl! Go, K9!”
“Yeah!”
I looked into the crowd to see an ecstatic Chrissy and a proud Dan. I hadn’t realized they would come out for the tournament. I guess not much went on around Lilithia while it was on. Soul let out an unhappy grunt when he saw Dan. He looked at me again and bit his lip as he frowned, but his expression quickly changed from frustration to a much softer look, probably caused by his younger sibling clinging to his leg.
My tall, dark, and handsome companion dropped to the ground, and Tina threw her arms around his neck; she really did admire him to no end. Her little crow was tightly wrapped in her shaking fingers as Soul pulled her away and put both hands over her cheeks, carefully wiping away a little bit of blood. The bright red was a startling contrast to her ghostly skin.
“O-okay now?” Soul asked quietly. She nodded, shock still filling out her already wide eyes.
“She’s a strong girl, just like her brother. She’ll be just fine,” I said.
I strode back over to Jekyll and Hyde, pacing in front of each before quickly bringing my boot up to Hyde’s chin. Then I jumped to the right, grabbed Jekyll’s hair, and brought his face down onto my knee. My voice was raspy because of what they did, but I didn’t mind; it made my next words seem that much more ominous.
“I don’t care if I get kicked out of the tournament or the league or the goddamn country. If you ever, ever go after family again, I won’t be this kind.”
I turned my back and gently took Tina’s hand as Soul picked up his axe and pretended to swing it at Hyde’s throat, eliciting a small shriek of terror.
He stopped short and sneered, “Like the final line of a nursery rhyme; the ghost in the wreckage of my mind … no longer a spectre, just a trash collector. Oh…” he chuckled grimly, sending a shiver up my spine, “how the mighty fall.”
He stood again and lurched towards Jekyll, who fell onto his back. Soul’s maddening cackle rang out as he walked out of the arena, still echoing as he walked into the locker room. Jekyll and his demonic twin shared a concerned look.
“Good job, boys, I guess Soul was right. ‘Pity the man who has none, and fear the man who has but one.’” I smirked.
I contently looked up to the ceiling, feeling all hope return from the cold, black hole it had previously taken up residence in. Tina giggled as she swung my hand back and forth, glancing over her shoulder and waving her fingers at Jekyll and Hyde. I cast one last glare at them as I ushered her into the locker room.
Tina was raving about the entire thing, no longer afraid of them after seeing how badly we’d beaten them, though it was four on two. After changing and waiting outside the training room for Soul, I tried to be mature and shake it off. We finally took a step forward, but I didn’t know what was coming.
I high-fived Tina as Soul walked over. His lip was split again, but he didn’t notice the blood trickling down his chin.
“Soul, you’re hurt!”
He lightly touched his face then shrugged. “Fine…”
I was thrown off balance and shrieked as a mop of blond curls fell into my face and arms wrapped around my neck.
“Oh my god, that was amazing!”
“H-hey Chrissy… How’s it going?” She allowed me to breathe again and stepped away.
“That was pretty grim, man.” Dan smirked as he patted Soul’s arm. Soul recoiled at Dan’s touch, scowling at him.
“Dragon!” Tina hugged the tall, sandy-haired man.
“Hey, kid. How you been? I don’t even remember the last time I saw you.” Dan ruffled her hair, and Soul made a sound similar to what I imagine geese make when protecting their young.
I crossed my arms at him. “Down, boy. I already told you, you can slug him as hard as you want after we get things sorted out. Got it?”
“Promise?” he pouted angrily.
“Wait, what?” Dan turned to me, clearly offended.
Chrissy violently shook my arm and grinned. “Now that that’s over, we need to go shopping!”
I scowled. “Why is that?”
“The big show tomorrow! They introduce everyone and tell a little bit about their fighting styles, history, and everything. You have to wear something nice, both of you!” She poked Soul in the chest and started dragging me away against my will, my partner giving a half-hearted wave as Ignatius and Greg joined him.
I forgot about this part of the tournament.
“I don’t want to do this, Chrissy.”
“Oh, come on! I’m sure you look great!”
I did, but that was beside the point.
“Just come out!”
I scowled as I left the change room, glaring daggers at my so-called best friend. She shook her head and handed me a different dress. We weren’t finding anything that we agreed on; everything she liked had flowers and everything I liked was lace.
“Just let me try that one, please! It’s so pretty!” I pointed to a floor-length dress that was black and electric blue. There was a blue band similar to my gear across the top, but the rest was fairly see-through — enough you could probably still see the X across my front.
Chrissy finally groaned in aggravation. “Fine, go amuse yourself while I look for something!”
Smiling victoriously as I pulled it from the rack, I bounded back to the change room.
Now, by no means am I a girl who likes painting myself in makeup and wearing fancy dresses; however, I had to bite my lip and grin as I looked in the mirror. Yes, it was a tad revealing, but I could show off my scars enough, and the blue part of the skirt wasn’t too vibrant. I bounced up and down and giggled. Then I threw open the door, standing proudly as Chrissy’s jaw dropped.
“Is this nice enough for you?” I asked smugly.
She scowled back. “Yeah, that will work.”
Once I got back to my room, I found Tina wearing one of my belts, passed out on the couch in my room, and Soul was lying face down on my bed.
But that’s okay, I could share.
I rubbed his arm, and he moved enough to let me fall down beside him, then sleepily wrap his arm around my shoulders. Smiling softly, I reached over to the bedside table, turning off the light.
Twenty-Four
The day went quickly but everything felt ominous, probably a side effect of giving Dr. Frankenstein and his men a good scare. It’s hard not to expect retaliation. Agatha was sitting in my room with me while we got dressed, chatting and talking about how she was so excited to fight people other than the warriors from her hometown.
“I hope you realize that the only reason everything is moving so quickly this year is because of you and Soul,” Agatha stated in her usual, bubbly tone.
I grimaced as I painted the white stripes on my cheek with fresh ink. “What do you mean?”
“Well … they all know that people die in this competition, and they also know you’re at war with those two goons, so they figure that the faster they get the competition started, the faster you’ll kill each other and everyone can stop dealing with property damage.”
Her round spectacles slid down her nose as she readjusted her little pink dress and stumbled around on high heels. Her hair was up in pigtails; as juvenile as it all appeared to me, it really suited her personality.
“Oh, good to know just how unwanted we are.” I grabbed my combat boots and tried to slide them on under my dress — the thing was quickly getting on my nerves.
“Don’t you dare.”
My head shot up to see Chrissy standing in the doorway with
a pair of heels in her hand. I rolled my eyes and she tossed the shoes at me. They were pretty tall, and I didn’t have much experience with heels taller than two inches.
“Are you kidding me?”
In response, she kicked my boots aside and shoved me, barefoot, towards the door.
Agatha, Chrissy, and I ended up in a small room full of other fighters, all in fancy suits and dresses.
“Why do we have to get all pretty like this anyway? We’re just going to end up beating each other to a pulp in two days anyway,” I said, concentrating on balancing on Chrissy’s ridiculous stilettos.
Aggy cringed. “I don’t have a clue but I feel pretty!”
Her forced smile told me she was nervous. After allying herself with us, she should be.
“There’s Iggy and Greg.” She dragged me towards them. Greg excitedly took her hand and kissed it. Aggy lost her cool and giggled while Ignatius’s face went completely red, a vein in his forehead throbbing as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Agatha, please …,” Ignatius whispered. “You don’t need to get mixed up with him.”
I scoffed at the irony and looked around for Soul. I hadn’t seen him yet, which was unnerving, considering how many times we’d been jumped since getting to the island..
Thankfully, a few minutes later, the door swung open and he peeked his head in. My eyes widened slightly as I watched him skulk towards us. His usually untamed black mess of hair was pulled back neatly into an elastic. The shaggy front remained down, falling in his eyes. As he took his place by my side, I hid a smile as I reached up and tugged on a braid. There were two of them right below his left eye and a piece with a few blue and green beads hanging down. He pushed my hand away and looked around, grunting then ripping off his tie and shoving it into his pocket. He was grumbling a poem to himself as he undid a few buttons. Same as he always did.
“It won’t kill you to smile, Soul,” I whispered playfully.
He quickly turned his head and exhaled, slowly meeting my eyes. “F-for K9?”
Smirking, I grabbed his hand. “Who else?”
Looking away, he sheepishly grinned and kicked his boot against the tile floor. “My K9…”
“You couldn’t be bothered to wear real shoes?” Greg asked.
Soul was still wearing his combat boots. It must be a Lilithia thing. As I was looking up at him, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed. Even though I was wearing four-inch heels, I was still nowhere near being close to his height.
I watched Ignatius get increasingly annoyed with Greg, and Soul playing with the thin black string tied around my wrist for a few minutes more. Then they finally called us all out in front of the audience.
Jekyll and Hyde were standing very far away from us but still managed to glare daggers at us. Soul hadn’t let go of my hand, and with the knots in my stomach, I really didn’t want him to. I wasn’t used to having so many people watching me for something that wasn’t a brutal fight. It was pretty unnerving.
Luckily, time moved quickly and they were already halfway through the group. I spotted Johnny sitting in the crowd beside Chrissy, Louis, Matt and Josh. Louis was falling asleep already, but I noticed Matt holding Josh’s hand. He seemed to notice me watching him and shifted uncomfortably. I smiled and gave him a small thumbs-up, at which Josh smiled broadly and Matt blushed. It was about time those two got together; we’d all been trying to set them up for years.
Soul’s grip tightened on my hand, and I saw Robert walking over to us, bringing a very bright spotlight with him. Strategically, he wrapped his arm over my shoulders and smiled at the audience. Though the look on my face was probably a little less than pleased, I made an attempt at smiling.
“Lilithia Heights’ very own K9 and Crow.” Robert pinched my arm slightly, making me flinch. “Who I see is still true to the name, keeping her dog collar around her neck at all times, even while in formal wear.”
Chrissy’s head snapped up from where she was sitting. She motioned that she was going to punch me when this was over. I had replaced the necklace she’d lent me on the way over when she wasn’t looking.
Robert turned to the screen and held his microphone up once more. “You’re known as one of the most brutal and bloodthirsty fighters known to the Central Main land mass, but it seems you have quite the surprising soft spot for your friend.”
The end of the qualifying tournament was playing on a big screen in the middle of the room, and Soul had to look away in order to hide his smile.
“Uh, well, yeah … I mean, we’ve been through the ringer, so to speak. That kind of thing creates bonds, you know?” I stammered.
“Yes, but what’s truly amazing is how you came to meet — some would even go so far to say unhealthy.”
After hearing him say this, I burst into laughter and had to grab my leg to support myself. I was stopped dead and spun on my heel when I heard a video start playing again.
“Matt, get the lights on!” Viktor’s voice echoed through the room.
“I’m trying!”
I calmed down as the video flickered, showing Soul toss Dan to the side, then quickly sock me in the nose and grab the front of my shirt to keep me from hitting the ground. My first instinct was to scowl at him, but his face was already red and he turned away, scratching his head and looking guilty.
“Oh, ladies and gentlemen, it gets better…”
We shared a curious look and leaned forward to get a good look at the screen. His old office.
All the monitors were still set up, and the screens flashed with faces of warriors Soul had attacked.
I aggressively smacked Soul’s arm but kept my eyes fixed on the screen. “I thought there weren’t cameras in there!”
“N-not supposed … to be…”
“Nameless and faceless
A monster at the core
Useless and careless
Here forevermore.”
Soul’s voice sounded so raspy in the video. I hadn’t remembered how rough it was when we first met. His posture had changed too; I hardly recognized the slouching man in the video. Beside me, Soul let out a short grunt of aggravation, and I let go of his hand.
“How did you get this? There were no cameras in there.” I sneered at our host.
“Well, obviously there was.”
I snatched Robert’s tie and pulled his face closer to mine. “How did you get it?”
“Th-there was an email… They told me to play it!” he stuttered as he shook his head.
“It was from Frankenstein, wasn’t it?!”
He dropped the microphone to his side and pushed me back by placing his hand around my collarbone, pressing into the hand-shaped bruise with his thumb.
“You’re perceptive, aren’t you?”
I gripped his wrist and gritted my teeth, hurting myself in the process because of how crooked they were. Soul stepped in and swatted his hand away, staring him down menacingly. Robert blatantly regretted making a move. As he started breathing faster, I ran to the edge of the stage and waved Matt over. The second he reached me, I pulled him closer and whispered in his ear. “Don’t trust the boss. He’s Frankenstein. He was the one picking us off one by one!”
He stepped back and looked at me in shock. He nervously nodded nonetheless, and bolted out of the room.
I stumbled back to Robert, who turned to the screen again, “Well, now that we know what they’ve been up to recently, how about we find out how this started?”
All mercy had clearly left him. Playing over the big screen was the video of a much-younger Soul facing off against the two monsters all those years ago. My partner looked away and inhaled sharply. He did his best to look calm, but his eyes betrayed him. It hurt him to see that video again. Dan held his head down as the video played. I cursed them all in my head as Robert held out his microphone.
“Thoughts?”
“Sheer brutality for the sake of it. The only way they’re leaving this competition is in a body bag, and the guys they work for a
re going to be next.” I shot a glare at Mr. Viktor, his greying hair swinging in a ponytail. He sneered discreetly.
“And what about you? How do you feel about what they did to you?” Robert smugly pointed upwards. I watched the video switch. My young face was on the screen, awash in a nightmare of blood.
I had never been able to bring myself to watch the video. I knew what happened; I didn’t need to see it again.
And yet there it was.
I already felt dizzy when the part I was dreading the most hit the screen.
“Get out of here!” A pudgy, purple-haired boy ran forward, carrying a baseball bat above his head. The camera flashed to an unimpressed Jekyll, holding a gun out in front of him.
I put my head down and bit my lip so hard it bled, the only way to keep from having a fit. With one last glance, I saw Henry’s determined expression change to one of confusion, and then his body dropped to the ground, blood pouring out of his chest. I grabbed Soul’s hand as my eyes burned with tears. I wouldn’t have let them see me cry if I could have controlled it, but I simply couldn’t. I felt a sheen of sweat and tears coat my cheeks. I clenched my fists and apologized to Henry and Johnny over and over in my mind.
“Enough.”
“I’m sorry, Crow, what was that?” our host smugly asked.
“Enough! Tormenting… They — they beat and bloodied … killing too many and…” He paused and ran his hands over his hair. “Enough! N-not going to happen anymore!”
He stepped forward and menacingly snatched the Invisible Man’s tie. “Dr. Frankenstein … Jekyll and Hyde … the Invisible Man … Dracula … the Mummy … all of you! T-tried to turn the bird into a demon!”
I watched him back Robert up to the edge of the stage and give him one good shove. “Set fire to my office … took years to get that equipment, and Crow — Death! Plague! Going to do the same, no matter the cost! It’s over. You’re beat! Surrender or burn!”
