David was calling my name but I just couldn’t focus on anything. I cannot go down like this...not from a simple cut! But try as I might nothing was registering and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. David needed my help, I had to get on my feet...I had to...With one last breath I sent flying a fireball of my own. I didn’t see if it hit the demon thug or not. I prayed with all my might that it hadn’t hit David. All feeling in my body was gone and I was losing vision fast. Eventually all I saw was blackness.
CHAPTER 6
I was stiff and sore all over and in places I didn’t even know I had. I felt like a dump truck was dropped on me. No one ever said that being in a fight was glamorous. I was lucky, extremely lucky, to be alive.
Throwing one aching leg after the other over my bed and standing up to stretch, I started searching for some clothes to throw on so I could go and see where David was and something to fill my rumbling stomach.
Walking slowly down the stairs, I could hear laughter coming from the kitchen and smell delicious spices and herbs and what I hoped was some crispy bacon and eggs.
“Looks like the dead has finally risen,” David said when he spotted me shuffling into the kitchen and heading straight for the eggs and bacon sitting on a plate square in the middle of the great oak table. He didn’t appear to have much wear and tear from our recent battle with the thugs in the pizzeria but I expected that anyway. David Blade was a formidable fighter and he was the one who often helped me with extra spars and mock battles after we finished official training sessions with the Fight Instructors. David and I were only a year apart and we were about as close as close could get. Yes, he had dreamy hazel colored eyes that truly did sparkle depending on his moods. His dark skin always seemed to reflect a soft foggy colored light but that wasn’t really unusual because all Remnants had that distinct tell tale sign of their power. I guess he was attractive (all the girls among the Remnant population couldn’t keep their eyes off of him) but I didn’t see him that way. To me he was just David...my sparring partner, my punching bag, my fellow Remnant, like a brother, my friend.
“Ha ha. You are so amusing,” I replied while stuffing my mouth with all the eggs I could put in there. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. I closed my eyes and savored the salt and pepper and starch sliding down my throat...heaven!
“I see your table manners will never be improved.” Aunt Carolyn said with her back turned while flipping over pancakes in a skillet over the stove.
“What do you expect? Can’t a girl stuff her face after the night I’ve had?” I opened my eyes and looked across the table at David’s frowning face.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Mary, do you realize how long you have been asleep? That fight we had with those demonic thugs didn’t happen last night...that was a week ago.”
I barely had time to swallow when I heard that last line. I wasn’t too sure I heard him correctly.
“Excuse you?” I managed to spit out as I successfully finished all the eggs on my plate. “That sounded like stupid hitting my ear because I know what you just said can’t be right.”
David sat still across the table from me and just looked my way with that measured stare he always gave whenever I was being unreasonable. I always wanted to slap that look off his face and this time was no different. If he wanted to tell me something that sounded crazy then I had the right to say something crazy back...didn’t I?
“And by the way, that last fireball that you threw saved both of our behinds.” David reached out across the table and grabbed my hands and held them in his strong, calloused ones. There was a long cut stretching from the base of his fingers on his right hand running along his arm up to his elbow. Although it looked freshly healed, probably courtesy of Aunt Carolyn, I couldn’t help but feel guilty about it. More than likely he had received that wound because I couldn’t make it through the fight...I went down like a stone from just a cut to my leg.
“I’m sorry, David, you got this wound because of me, didn’t you? I wasn’t strong enough, I thought I was, I was almost sure that I could handle anything but I just couldn’t...”
To my utter shame, I began to softly cry and tried to pull my hands out of David’s grasp. Suddenly I was sick and the eggs I had just consumed were trying to find an escape hatch out of the pits of my stomach.
Fighting the urge to flee to the bathroom and fighting the desire to stay near David who was surprisingly comforting, I began to squirm in my seat and tried to avoid David’s warm, hazel eyes. When did his presence become so soothing? David and I touched all the time during our training exercises. No one could learn proper techniques if they were on the other side of the room from their sparring partner. But we never had any prolonged touches and certainly nothing as gentle as this. What was wrong with me? I wasn’t one of those Cinderella gals who longed for the male or Prince to rescue them or comfort them.
I managed to pull my hands away from him and jumped up out of my chair.
“Mary, you were amazing in that fight. You saved me and not to mention, all the kids that were in that pizzeria. You did that.” David tried to console me but the moment of Kum Bah Yah had passed.
“Then why do I feel so bad, David? I let you down, I wasn’t watching my back, I wasn’t watching your back...It could have ended much worse than it did. That’s on me.” No amount of words could drown out the guilt I was feeling. If anything would have happened to him...
“Oh, Mary, don’t stress honey. We all go down in battle a time or two but we get back up. That’s why we train very hard. A Remnant life is not an easy life but it is a worthy one.” Aunt Carolyn said all of that while coming around the table and encircling me in one of her motherly hugs. For as long as I could remember, Aunt Carolyn’s hugs were the answer to every problem in my young life. I don’t know if it was a part of her healing arts but she always managed to calm me down with just an embrace.
Looking over her shoulder, I could see David still sitting at the table but staring my way waiting patiently to catch my eye. When he saw my glace he gave me a small wink and a smile. And just like that, he pierced me, that subtle arrow went straight through my heart and an electric pulse began spreading throughout my entire body...and then I knew. I could no longer look at David and think he was just a brother. In that moment he had become something more, something much more. Holding on tight to Aunt Carolyn and staring into the depths of David’s loving eyes, I began crying again. Everything was changing.
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Did you love BlackThorn? Then you should read Encourage Yourself Again by J Asheley Brown!
Encouraging depressed hearts and minds to be light in spirit. The poetry in this book will wrap up the reader in confidence and strength. Let your soul find ease.
Read more at J Asheley Brown’s site.
Also by J Asheley Brown
Speaking My Truth
Emotional Rain
Standalone
Poetry Is Light
Something So Real
The Poet
Sailing Through Adversity Radiant
Pressure
Tricks Of The Heart
Days Of Betrayal
Encourage Yourself Again
Different View
No WIFI Before Christmas
Dark Reality
BlackThorn
Significant Synopses
In The Hidden Part
Watch for more at J Asheley Brown’s site.
About the Author
J Asheley Brown has self published over 100 books ranging from poetry to young adult fiction and everything inbetween. He is the Creator and Editor-in-chief of a poetry publication called Poet Speak Maga
zine which is both an online and print magazine. When he is not busy writing he is creating and designing book covers for his company, J ASH B DESIGNS. The hardworking author is a man of faith and also a musician.
Read more at J Asheley Brown’s site.
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