by Nicol, Andy
My friend scowled and crossed her arms, begrudgingly nodding after a few moments.
We spent the rest of the day training. By eight o’clock, we were exhausted and had to drag ourselves back to the main room. There were other warriors hanging out and watching other interviews from earlier in the day, unlike before.
“You two look tired.” Greg smiled as he tossed a package of candy at me. “Your friend said you like to snack.”
Nodding, I tore into the package and dumped most of it into my mouth, then handed the rest to Soul — or at least I tried to, but he was fast asleep. His mouth parted slightly as his chest rose and fell, and his head was wrenched back toward the ceiling. I watched him for a few moments before turning back to the TV, where Jekyll and Hyde had pushed their way into the interview room. They shoved Johnny against the wall and trashed the place as my brother angrily watched.
“I’m trying to work here!” he yelled.
“And we’ve got a message for the other competitors!” said Jekyll, grabbing the camera and aiming it at his face. “Stay out of our way and you won’t get hurt. Join us and you won’t get hurt. But lay a hand on the bird or the puppy and you will get hurt. They’re ours to do with what we will.”
“Thanks for your time, Johnny-boy.” Hyde shoved my brother again, then followed his shadow out.
Johnny angrily stormed towards the camera and shut it off. The video was on a loop and started with the first pair of warriors again, completely shaking off the final event of the day.
Greg shook his head and looked at me disdainfully. “Did I make a mistake by saying I’d work with you?”
Twenty-Six
“Chrissy!” I shouted. “We’ve been over the other warriors already. I just need to know about Jekyll and Hyde!”
My airheaded friend dramatically shrieked at me, causing me to scowl and step back from the table. The dim light from the little lamp cast four dark shadows across the kitchen as Dan, Chrissy, and I argued. We’d been over the warriors’ stats, weapons, and fighting style multiple times, but the brothers had changed the play. They weren’t fighting with their regular weapons. No one actually knew what they were using, but what we did know was that they’d stocked up.
“You know their tricks. You need to figure out how you can beat everyone else!”
“But they are the targets. They’re who we’re after!” I growled back. “I don’t care whether we win or not if we can get them out of the way for good!”
I pushed my white bangs out of my eyes and looked around the group, stopping at Soul, who had kept his eyes fixed on the table. This is the only opportunity Soul and I would ever have to kill them without our reputations getting seriously tarnished. I momentarily doubted every choice I’d ever made and worried that any form of consequence would be my fault. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Soul lifted his eyes and stubbornly shook his head. “Revenge.”
“He’s right. This competition isn’t important right now but closure — revenge — is. I want to feel like we won; I want to know they can’t ever do this to anyone again!” I could feel my eyes starting to water, despite how much I fought it. “I need it to be over so it never happens again.” The edges of my teeth rubbed together as I avoided looking at the rest of them.
Chrissy had no idea what it was like to live while being hunted, to have someone’s blood on your hands. She didn’t come from the background most of us had. She’d never seen an underground tournament, and she’d never made it far enough into our qualifiers to be forced to do anything that would scar her for life. She continued to argue with me, not understanding what I had been going through. Dan, however, stayed quiet the entire time.
“J-just … dog is right, cat is wrong. Don’t know — don’t know what it’s like, constantly looking over your shoulder…” Soul’s hoarse voice startled me. Somehow he managed to make his way around the table to my side and placed his hand over mine. I heard Dan exhale as he rubbed his neck.
“He’s right,” he said. “No one’s going to sleep properly until these guys are gone, and you two know them best. Chrissy, just let them do what they want. It’s not like we can stop them anyway.”
“Thank you, Dan.” I looked expectantly at my blond friend. She was staring at Dan with a kind of rage that I would usually be slightly scared of, though given the moment, it hardly affected me.
“They are going to get themselves killed!” she snapped.
“Then that’s their choice! We can’t stop them, and if we cared about them or anyone else, we wouldn’t even try!”
“Kill them,” Dan said quietly. He turned to Chrissy. “If letting them face their demons makes me a bad guy — if it means I’m going to hell — then so be it.” He shook his head and looked between us. “Benji, I manipulated you from day one, and you knew it. Why you didn’t call me out on it I have no idea. Soul … I messed up! I watched that video day after day, week after week. I never forgot what I did, so give me a break and let me help take them down before I snap! I can’t help much now, but I can let you off your leash. Forget about the competition and the other warriors. Ignatius, Agatha, and Greg can take care of that. Find the twins and kill them.”
He paused and met Soul’s eyes. “You deserve it.” The rings around Dan’s eyes were dark, like he hadn’t slept in days. He shoved the papers at me, then stormed off. Soul let out a short sigh and looked at the floor, dirty black hair covering the majority of his pale face. I shot a glance at Chrissy, who was still glaring down the hall at Dan.
I shot up and followed Dan down the hall, grabbing his shoulder once I reached him. His body tensed instantly, and he growled as he spun to face me.
“What do you want?”
“I want to know why you’re such an ass,” I said.
“What?”
“I said I want to know why you’ve been such a jerk, and why you suddenly want to redeem yourself.”
He roughly pulled his shoulder out of my grasp. His eyes seemed darker, with all sense of his usual mischief gone. “He’s like a ghost!” Dan pulled his hair back. “Ever since he came back, I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I haven’t been fighting like I usually do… I feel like I’m being haunted. I thought he was gone! I came to terms with the fact I was a coward years ago, but now he just shows up? How do you expect me to live with what I did? He’s never going to forgive me. You’re never going to forgive me. Hell! I don’t think I can forgive myself!”
I watched him carefully as he leaned back against the wall, exhaling. He shook his head.
“I-it was easy…” he whispered bitterly, barely a hint of his thick Boston accent in his words. “It was easy to forget him when he was dead — kind of a put him out of his misery type of deal, you know? His father left for business when he was thirteen, barely coming home after that. When he was sixteen, his mother found out she was pregnant with Tina, and the guy was gone for good. He was a drunk. Moses was his name … total jerk. Soul started fighting to help his mother out — extra cash. She hated what he was doing. Thought he was going to get hurt, so she told him that if we continued, she wanted nothing to do with him. H-he was so miserable…”
I crossed my arms and let him continue.
“When … it happened, I kind of figured maybe … maybe it was his way out. I came to terms with the thought that it was over, that he wasn’t so miserable anymore! It was over! But when he came back, he… It was like a ghost. He was suffering all this time and it was my fault! I wanted to save him but I just killed my brother … He was just a kid. He’s not even the same person anymore!”
Leaning against the wall, Dan slid to the floor and cradled his head in his hands. I knew what it was like. That didn’t mean I was okay with what he did.
“Blood on your hands,” I muttered, though I wasn’t completely sympathetic.
Dan met my tired eyes with his red ones, then angrily shook his head. “What do I do?”
“Don’t ask me; I’m still trying to get a little redemption myself
.”
I turned my back on him and started to walk back to the kitchen. Soul was standing by the door with anger-filled curiosity. He stuck his face in mine, physically shaking as he sneered. “Th-thought he was helping?”
The hurt in his voice hit me hard. He looked like he was sick to his stomach, despite the rage. I closed my eyes and shook my head. After a moment, I stepped back and opened my eyes to look at him again. I could tell he was furious. Because of past experiences with him, I thought I knew how to comfort him slightly. But when I tried to reach up and rub his shoulder lightly, he frowned and pulled his body away from me, storming off down the hall. As I watched him disappear into the dark, I sighed. He’d find me if he needed me.
“Chrissy, what else do we know about how they fight?” I asked suddenly.
Her shoulders rose, then slumped in defeat. “They don’t have any specific techniques. They just like to make people bleed.” She gazed into the empty hall. “W-was this my fault? Ben, I am so sorry —”
“No, part of me has been waiting for them to break since the day they confronted each other.”
I started to drag my feet back across the wood floor to a barstool. I was starting to get claustrophobic in the little windowless room. I kind of wanted to go home.
“What the hell? Ow! Knock it off!”
Sharing a look, Chrissy and I both booked it down the hall, only to see Dan lying on the floor, trying to protect himself from Soul’s boot.
As he stomped the blond man, he muttered under his breath. “C-couldn’t just stay… No, had to leave, had to flee, just so he wouldn’t see!” Soul’s voice ripped from his throat as he screamed, “Feel shame, guilt … feel fear! When the bird is done with the gemini, he will come for the worm!”
Soul kicked Dan once more, then allowed me to yank him back by the arm. I kept my hands tight around his forearm as he wiped his mouth with the back of his other hand. Keeping his gaze fixed on the traitor, he ripped his arm away. I grunted as I stepped forward, keeping myself from landing on my face, and stepped in front of Soul.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
He breathed heavily as he briefly gave me a look of worry and then reverted back to rage.
“K9 … sh-shouldn’t get …,” he paused and squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his fist and pursing his lips slightly. “Stay away from the bird!”
He stomped back down the hall towards the kitchen and into the main room. I watched him pause a moment to breathe as his hands started to shake. He let out a grunt, then stomped off towards his room.
“Put some ice on that…” I absentmindedly muttered to Dan as Chrissy helped him up. I rushed after Soul.
I followed the purple-wallpapered halls back to our rooms, ignoring the clunk of my boots on loose floorboards. His door was closed, but I could hear him rummaging around inside and talking to himself. He sounded stressed and hurt.
I didn’t blame him.
“Soul?” I gently knocked on the door and heard a sudden crash. “Are you okay? Can I come in?”
“Go!”
A scowl took my face as his growly tone of voice rang through the door. I knocked harder and leaned against the door. “Soul, I need to talk to you. Open this door before I do!”
I heard the small creak of the wooden door and had to catch myself by grabbing the door frame. I gave a frustrated look up at Soul. He was breathing heavily and glaring at me, but he held his chin high, telling me this was more than just hurt. This was betrayal, something I honestly hoped he would never feel because of me — partly because he was big and could probably snap me like a twig. But mostly because I never wanted to hurt him.
His hair was drooping over his right eye as he waited for me to say my piece.
“I know what he did was wrong. I know his philosophy is wrong. Everything about the situation we are in is wrong, Soul, but it isn’t over yet —”
“Stop that.”
“Wh-what?”
“Stop saying that. Crow may get revenge, Crow may beat the gemini, but he is still just a crow. Absolom is gone … not coming back. Still scarred, still … stupid … We lost. K9 and Crow lost. It won’t be better just because it ends.”
He took a small step forward. “Doesn’t it hurt? Doesn’t it burn, K9? H-how — still … still scarred, torn, and broken… Oh! Hmm — mm.” His face changed and he looked bitter and sad. I stood as still as possible as he gripped his hair in one hand and traced the scar across my chest with the other, suddenly becoming incredibly solemn. My breathing started to get shallow. He pulled his hand back up to my shoulder and rested it there, calming himself down a little bit.
“I-is it really winning if we’ve lost all that we had in the process?”
My head fell as I took a deep breath… Was he right? I still felt empty, the kind of empty that feels like a broken heart, but not out of loss or anything … just … inferiority. But…
“Yes, losses are in abundance but think of what we’ve gained. We took out their entire team, we won the tournament. We met each other, right? Isn’t that a win on its own?” I asked him desperately.
I had taken a few steps towards him without realizing it, though he still hadn’t moved. He was still staring down at me with anger and confusion in his tired eyes, with no hint of a smile. I was starting to feel light headed and tired, not to mention the emptiness in my chest and ball of stress in my stomach. I just wished he would say something.
“Soul, come on! We can beat them. We are warriors. It’s what we do! We can beat them and then we can start over. We’ll be free of them for the first time in our lives.”
“The black crow flies free, and sings his very own song,” he muttered. That was the poem he recited the day we met. I think it was called “Ravens’ Revenge,” an older tale. I thought about it for a moment. Maybe it’s his favourite? Maybe … it just fits.
“K9?”
“Yeah?”
“S-still … love you…”
I looked back up at him as he played with his shirt and blushed. This time I think I blushed too. He had calmed down now and grabbed my hands as I leaned myself against his chest.
“Want to … w-want to start over but only if … only if my K9…” he stuttered. He drifted off as he kicked his toe on the ground. He tilted his head from side to side as he thought, probably debating what words he should use. I didn’t bother letting him try to figure it out for himself. I didn’t like it when he did that. I could see him struggling and I hated it.
“I want to start over too,” I jumped in. “But only if you will come with me, my Crow.”
He didn’t look at me, but he grinned as his cheeks turned an even darker shade of pink. He nuzzled my nose and rested his forehead on mine.
“We should clean up, and then we can go see Tina. After that I need to try to get some sleep.” I grabbed his hand once again and dragged him away from his room.
Johnny had left the pub early to go prepare himself for his commentary tomorrow, which left us to socialize with Soul’s mother and sister. She was a nice woman, but she couldn’t get used to seeing Soul as a grown man.
“He looked so different, smaller. He was always a relatively average size, but in his early high school days he was only tiny —well, maybe I’m exaggerating, but look at him now…”
She shook her head and I glanced over at Soul, who had smeared ice cream all over Tina’s face. I smiled softly as he slowly looked back, a grin still playing with his features and a soft chuckle escaping his lips. The grin was replaced with a much more charming smile when our eyes met. His hair still fell over one eye but he looked content for once. I couldn’t really describe it.
He slowly reached across the table and tapped my nose, ice cream dripping and falling down my face. I kept my eyes fixed on his while he tried to keep himself from laughing, a scowl meeting my lips — along with vanilla ice cream. I pretended to sigh and shake my head as he folded his hands in front of him and bit his lip. Tina was giggling beside him, so I shook
my head at her too, making her laugh harder.
We all stood, pulled our jackets on, and walked out of the little café and into the cold street. It was snowing lightly while the four of us walked in silence down the narrow streets until we reached the hotel where Soul’s family was staying. It was a fancy old building with ribbons taped to gold pillars and bright lights shining through glass doors. The air smelled like pine needles, and a thin layer of snow had accumulated on my shoulders.
“You were right,” Soul suddenly told his mother. “The crow made a mess, can’t fix it.”
He wrung his hands. I hugged myself tightly as I shivered and watched what could be our final farewell. I just prayed it wasn’t.
“Soul, we have argued a lot in our time together, but you’ve never made a mess you can’t get yourself out of. You two are going to do great tomorrow,” she reassured him. Her lip shook. He slowly let his eyes close as the older lady lightly touched his cheek. “You better win, boy. You better win for the three ladies who love you most. Don’t get killed, Soul, just don’t…”
He nodded and gave a small smile before suddenly embracing her, to her shock. He buried his face deep in her scarf and shook his head, “Made a mistake… C-can’t — can’t fix it. I-I’m sorry…”
“Now” — she patted his back — “don’t tell me that. You don’t need to do everything yourself. I’ve said that but it’s never stopped you before, so now I have to put my foot down. You can’t do this yourself and I don’t want you to. K9 is not going to sit back and watch you fight, and she shouldn’t have to, so listen to what she says and let her help.”
He wiped his hand across his nose and stepped back, nodding and then getting down on his knees in the snow. Tina sniffled as she threw herself at her older brother and knocked him onto his behind.
“Don’t die!” She softly cried into his hair, and he let her. His arms fit uncomfortably around her because of her small size. “Don’t leave me again. I missed you so much! I can’t let you leave me again!”
