by T Ariyanna
He grabbed her wrist and spun her around. One arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her against his cold body. She tensed and curled up on herself, her heart beating wildly at his touch. Her cheeks burned despite the chilly night. She willed herself to calm down.
He pressed her elbows to her sides. He used his foot to spread her feet shoulder-length apart, and she felt her weight spread evenly.
“Make sure you keep your arms close to your body for protection. If they get close, you want to be able to put as much force into your punches as you can,” he whispered in her ear. He jabbed forward with her hands, short sharp movements that strained her muscles. “Your instincts are pretty good at telling you when and how to move, so you should be good with that. You made a good choice to trip me with your leg, so you're like Arion there. He was better with kicks, too.”
Cy stepped back from her, and the air came back into her lungs. She tensed her muscles to keep her stance, though her body had relied on Cy’s support until then.
Kaitlyn spun around quickly, lifting her leg to kick him in the side. He swatted her foot out of the air, and she fell forward. He caught her effortlessly, holding her at the small of her back. She blushed again and rolled out of his grip. He laughed at her while she scrambled away from him.
Focus, she told herself. while she desperately sought a plan of attack, Cy approached. His body was too noisy to attempt a sneak attack, and he charged for her head on. She twisted out of his path at the last second. She threw her arm up to shield herself as he slashed at her. His talons caught on her scales, and she shoved him away. Cy tumbled backwards, and Kaitlyn laughed when he hit the ground.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so lightly, the last time she had felt so carefree. She began grabbing the rocks at her feet and tossing them at Cy, laughing all the while.
A coy grin formed on his face. “So, now you think this is funny?”
He dodged the flying bark and ran at Kaitlyn. Forgetting about the point behind the match, she fled behind a tree. She ran from Cy while he chased her in circles.
Kaitlyn turned to taunt him, running backwards. She tripped over the pieces of bark littering on the ground, her ankles folding painfully as she tried to right herself. Cy dove for her. His arms wrapped around her, encasing her in a thick shield just before they hit the ground.
Kaitlyn twisted in his grip to look at him, to thank him, but found her voice caught in her throat.
Cy was looking at her with a great torment in his eyes. It looked as though he was warring with himself, his gaze burning. Because of how they had landed, they were very close together, and neither one of them could breathe. Her heart raced in her chest, and her skin burned more than could be attributed to the scales.
“Cy,” she started, but he had closed his eyes. It seemed he had made his decision, for he was leaning closer to her ever so slowly. Unable to think, unsure of how to react, Kaitlyn waited.
Kaitlyn was thrown from Cy’s grasp when Void tackled Cy to the ground. He was sitting on Cy’s chest and was shaking him, screaming incoherently. Void reared his hand back and put all of his weight into a punch to Cy’s face. He hit hard enough to dent his cheek, though Void’s hand looked far worse for wear. The metal had bit into his knuckles, and the fingers were bent at odd angles.
Void readied himself for another punch. He had gone silent, his lips trembling too much to get a single word out. He was frozen in place, his claws ready to strike, hands shaking violently.
Kaitlyn jumped up and ran to Void. She grabbed onto his shoulders, her claws digging into his flesh, and tried her best to pull him off. “Void, stop! What are you doing, get off of him!” she begged, tugging at his shoulders.
Her grip kept slipping from him, and her claws were tearing his flesh to ribbons, but she didn’t have time to change. She had to separate them before it got any worse.
“I said get off!” she screamed. She latched her hand over his face and dug her heels into the ground. She pulled Void off of Cy, her claws cutting through half of his face.
He fell back onto the ground, clutching his face and growling low in his throat. Kaitlyn rushed to help Cy up. He was stunned, but the damage Void had done with his punch had already healed. Still, he didn’t move.
Void was well before Cy was, and he sat up. Kaitlyn crouched in front of Cy, ready to stop another fight before it happened. “Stop it, Void. Just stop fighting, and talk to me. What were you doing?”
At Kaitlyn's voice, the rage vanished from Void's face, replaced by immense confusion. He stared down at his hands, the cuts still in the healing process. “I don't know. . . he was. . . I thought he was going to. . . what was he doing to you? I had to stop it, no matter what it was, but I don't know why. I. . . I just don't know what happened to me.”
“This is what I was warning you about. He's too past the deep end to pull him out. He attacked, who's to say he won't do it again? We get rid of him now, Kaitlyn!” Cy hissed, pushing himself into a sitting position. He had recovered so suddenly that Kaitlyn jumped at his voice. He looked far angrier than he ought to be from a single punch. Could he have made sense of Void’s screams when Kaitlyn couldn’t?
“No, there has to be a reason, a good one. He wouldn't just attack us for no reason, I know it! We just have to figure out…”
“There's nothing left to figure out, Kaitlyn. He just proved that he would attack us out of nowhere. I know you feel responsible for him because you think it's your fault Arion is dead, but that's all bullshit! You didn't do anything wrong, but you're putting us in danger because you think you’re the one at fault!”
“What are you talking about? Of course I did! If I hadn't taken Kraven directly to Arion, he would still be here! I know he told me to, but I didn't know how bad he had gotten. I shouldn't have listened to him, I should have…” Kaitlyn trailed off, fighting against the images that flooded her mind.
“It's not Arion's fault either! It's mine, alright? I'm the one that was writing to you, going behind Arion's back. I told you to bring that son of a bitch to us, not him!” Cy burst, unable to hold onto the guilt any longer. “The only letter he ever saw was the last one you sent, and he lost it after that! I couldn't tell you, couldn't warn you because he destroyed the damn bird. The only one to blame for this situation is me! So please, Kaitlyn, just stop!”
He collapsed forward onto his hands and knees, his body shaking with tearless sobs. “Stop hating yourself. Stop justifying keeping this thing around because you feel guilty. Hate me, blame me, because I do. I thought I wanted him gone, but I'm nothing without him. Just a pathetic mess. A god damned selfish demon!”
Kaitlyn stared at Cy as he broke down. His metal frame shook violently, rattling eerily as he sobbed tearlessly. She had been so overwhelmed with emotions that it felt like she had shut down. Rage, sorrow, defeat, betrayal. All of it flashed within her for a split second before it was too much for her to handle.
She dropped to her knees beside him, her legs unwilling to hold her any longer. “You… Cyllorian, you can't…”
Kaitlyn started, but she couldn't tie her scrambled thoughts into a sentence. “Is there… anything else?” she inquired, finally looking at Cy.
She waited a long time for him to stop crying. Her anger burned hotter within her every moment that passed without an answer. She thought back to the letters she had received, and put the pieces together to match them to Cy.
Once Cy had calmed down, he looked up into Kaitlyn's burning eyes, and flinched away. He put his head to the ground, going limp with defeat. “You,” he breathed heavily. “I did it all because I wanted you, Kaitlyn. I thought I just didn’t want him to have you, but I was wrong. I want you for myself. I don’t know what this is, and I’m too scared to find out. All I know is that even though I know I don’t deserve anything, I still want you.”
Kaitlyn’s heart jumped in her chest, and her throat closed up. She couldn’t believe it, it couldn’t be true. Everything in her mind scrambled,
and when it settled, only one thought remained.
“Are you sure you wanted me?” she whispered, remembering how much Cy had hated Arion before. “Or did you just not want him to have me?”
Cyllorian didn’t move or speak. The demon remained as still as a statue.
Without another word, Kaitlyn grabbed Void’s wrist and led him back to their camp to bandage his wounds. Cy didn’t follow.
Void
Void stared at his hands, bound together by magic-infused rope as the three of them walked in silence. Cy was leading the way a few feet ahead, and Kaitlyn was walking beside Void reluctantly. She watched the ground as they walked, her expression as empty as Void expected his own to be.
“We're nearly to the Junkyard, now. We'll keep going through the night, and hopefully we won't be noticed. The Loren Woods should be just on the other side, but it won't be as thick as it is at home. We'll still have a ways to go before we're in the clear,” Cy called back. Emotionlessly.
Void stared at the demon peculiarly. Since he and Kaitlyn had gotten in their fight a few days prior, the whole group had been set in a silent depression. Void could sense the anger from Cy boiling just under the surface, though it no longer seemed to be directed at Void.
The Junkyard came upon them quickly and suddenly, piles of trash straddling a worn and uneven path. In the distance looked like mountains, though they didn't look natural. The ground was dry and flat, and cracks were visible underneath the garbage. Large insects gathered in the shadows while bright colored snakes and lizards were tangled together on top of metal pieces that still gave off traces of heat. Though the sun was still emitting heat, the walled path created a stream of strong winds that whipped around them, carrying with it the promise of a freezing night ahead. There were very few plants to be seen, and those that somehow survived in this barren land were rotting with trash infused into them as they grew through the piles.
“This is all the waste from the riots a hundred years ago. Machines, transportation, inventions. Everything associated with the Mages that didn't get locked in Centric ended up here, including some Mages and outcasts from both worlds. Anyone that wasn't useful to the Mages were sent to live here. Not that they mind, from what I've heard. They got all the spare parts they could ever ask for here,” Cy explained when he noticed Void's curious glances at everything.
There were pieces he recognized in the heaps of scrap parts, though he had no idea where he had seen them before. Large muzzles from cars, and wings from planes jutted out into the path, rusted and discolored. He spotted various curved pieces crumpled on top of each other. It reminded Void of the plating to Cy's body.
Something shiny gleamed in the moonlight, half-buried in the scraps, and Void paused to look at it. He dug it out from the pile with difficulty, and held it in his hands. It was heavier than it looked, but the weight was comforting. He rubbed the dirt from the face, revealing large eyes and the beak of an owl. Its wings were missing, and its body dented, though an hourglass pattern of dots could still be seen etched into the metal of the stomach. Void ran his fingers over the pattern, and looked to the sky when he realized what the dots were. “Orion,” he whispered when he found the constellation.
“Void, come on. We have to hurry,” Kaitlyn called to him impatiently. Void spared another glance for the broken owl before dropping it the ground and jogging to catch up with Kaitlyn. She stared at the owl he had been holding until he came to her side. She turned and followed Cyllorian without another word.
“There's a lot of lights here,” Void mused aloud. Kaitlyn looked at the various colors shining around them. Cy pulled his cloak tighter around his body and quickened his pace.
“This isn't a place for tourists,” a voice called out from behind them. Void turned on the spot, but Kaitlyn backed up until she was nearly touching Cy.
A man jumped out of the shadows, a lantern with a white flame inside swinging from a tall cane. He swung it towards Void, and he retreated from the light.
“What are you doing here?” the man asked, coming closer. He twisted his hand on the cane and a spear tip sprung out from the top. He jabbed it at Void, pushing him further back. He bumped into Kaitlyn, sending her into Cy. Void went to apologize, but froze when he saw numerous shadowy figures climbing over the mounds of scraps and trash. They were surrounded
“Please, our friend is very ill. We must get him to the Loren Woods. We heard there is a powerful Mage hiding there that can help us,” Kaitlyn lied, putting a stiff arm around Cy. He retreated further into his cloak and faked a cough, though it sounded wrong from his metal body. Another man lunged a faint orange light towards Cy, and he turned away.
“Why don't you have him in a cart? If he's so gravely ill that you trespass through our lands, then he shouldn't be walking on his own. Show your face, stranger!” The man lunged for Cy, but he dodged easily. Void caught sight of Cy's hand as he lashed out and shoved the man away.
“You got quite the strength for being sickly,” the first man said skeptically. He stabbed at Void again, and he jumped out of the way. But the man didn't stop there. His spear continued past Void, and snagged on Cy's cloak.
There was a stunned silence as the cloak was torn from Cy's body in pieces, exposing the gleaming metal to the moonlight. Cy's luminous purple eyes were filled with panic as he studied the men around him. His claws unsheathed themselves, slowly so they wouldn’t draw attention to them, but it was too late.
The group surrounding them swarmed around Cy, shoving Kaitlyn and Void out of the way. Their voices had turned into an uproar with unintelligible words. Kaitlyn was pounding on their backs, shrieking wildly. She clawed at them, but they swatted her away with canes and spears.
Void looked everywhere, his brain searching for any clues for what he should do. He could run, none of them were paying any attention to him. Kaitlyn would most likely be spared, but Void had no doubt that the people would disassemble Cy until he no longer existed. All Void had to do was walk the other way, and he would be free of his newest source of torment.
He watched Kaitlyn charge at the group without caution, her arms and sides bleeding from where they had slashed her with their spears. Her face was covered in sweat and tears, and her voice had already begun to go from screaming.
Void could see Cy lying in the middle of everything. He was fending the crowd off with a domed shield made of a bright green light. The people struck at it over and over, cracking the shield. Cy was immobilized by fear, barely able to keep what was left of the shield over him. A chunk broke off from the edge, and a spear pierced into his leg. The scream that he let out was filled with pure terror. For once, Void felt like he could truly relate to someone, knowing the look on Cy's face all too well.
Void scrambled to his feet and dove for the nearest junk pile. A weapon, a sharp object, there has to be something here! he thought as his eyes grazed over everything in sight. Anything could be a weapon, if only he had his strength back. He was in no condition to fight, but he knew he would need something threatening if he were to stand a chance against a hoard of crazed lunatics.
His hand came across something small, and he nearly threw it aside because of its size, but he hesitated with it. It was bent at a ninety-degree angle, with a leather handle and a thick, hollow tube attached. A trigger stuck out from the inner curve, and Void studied it with a sense of dread forming in his stomach. Grite had told him about this once before, he was sure. He had called it a gun.
But it wasn't exactly like Grite had described. There were no holes or openings to put bullets into, and from what Void knew, it wouldn't work without them. But maybe he was the only one that knew that. He could still scare the others with just the sight of it. He didn't want to shoot anyone anyway.
Void got to his feet, holding the gun with both hands. They trembled immensely as he pointed it at the crowd as a whole. “HEY!” he yelled, but he went unnoticed. “Look at me!” he tried again, though he had lost his volume, along with his confidence.
The sound that came from the gun was deafening, and a thin trail of smoke reached towards the heavens. It fired?!
The crowd paused in their assault and dropped to the ground. Kaitlyn jumped over them to get to Cy, and helped him stand. Both of his legs had been punctured multiple times, and putting weight on them made the healing process stutter.
Void lowered the gun to the crowd, and they cowered away from it. “Let them get out,” Void demanded. His hand was steady now as he glared at the helpless people. This is power, he told himself. This is how it feels to instill fear into the lives of others. This is how Grite felt, and now it's my turn!
Void followed each person with the gun as they crawled out of Kaitlyn and Cy's way. Void gestured for them to go ahead, and they broke into a run once they were past Void.
“You pathetic things are going to stay right here with your junk, and we're leaving. I won't hesitate to kill any who follow,” he hissed before whirling around and running after the others with as much speed as he could conjure.
The three of them ran until the Junkyard was far from sight and trees were the only thing to be seen. They ran long past the point of exhaustion, until there was no energy left in them to keep them going. They collapsed into a huddle against a large tree. Even Cy was gasping desperately for air.
“Why'd you do that?” Cy asked once they had stopped running. He looked up at Void, his eyes wide and unreadable.
“Do what?” Void responded. He could no longer feel his legs, and his fingers had stiffened around the handle of the gun.
“Save me.”
Void looked down at the gun in his hand. He still had no idea how it had worked, but he figured it was better not to question it. He also didn't want to think too much about why he had acted the way he did.
