Page 58

Keahi

"Okay, okay.

That’s it.

I give up! Just stop, please." I’m lying on the forest floor again; Wystan’s knee is pushing down between my shoulder blades and they’re twisting my right arm behind my back.

"Say it," they urge me on, and I can pretty much hear their smirk.

I don’t answer and roll my eyes instead, which leads to Wystan twisting my arm further.

"Okay, fuck! Fine," I mutter and my partner’s grip on me loosens slightly.

"Dear Wystan, I beg you, oh powerful earth handler and stronger fighter of the two of us, please, have mercy on me and release my arm."

As soon as the last word leaves my lips, Wystan gets off me only to burst out laughing, clutching their stomach and leaning against a tree.

"Never gets old!" they exclaim and wipe an imaginary tear from under their eye.

I turn around to sit up against a tree and wait for them to get ahold of themselves.

"Very funny," I mutter under my breath.

The two of us have been training for hours, and Wystan thought it necessary to humiliate me even more every time I lose against them by introducing this penalty.

It’s a warm autumn day so we decided to train in the forest next to the academy, and the skies know I’m glad we don’t have an audience apart from some squirrels and birds.

"Oh, come on, you can’t tell me Malia goes soft on you," Wystan teases, oblivious to my change of mood at the mention of the girl I thought I knew.

"Actually, Malia doesn’t go anything on me," I reply bitterly, which seems to get my new partner’s attention.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," I start while fiddling with dead leaves in the ground, the same old frustration snaking through me.

"That I haven’t even talked to Malia in like two days and our last conversations didn’t exactly go well."

"What did she do?" Wystan asks, accusation thick in their voice.

The first impulse I get is to stick up for Malia, but I quickly discharge that idea.

I’m not going to lie, it is kind of nice that Wystan is supportive, even if it’s only because they aren’t a big fan of Malia themselves.

"I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but I guess she kind of played me and then humiliated me semi-publicly after scaring the living shit out of me." Should sum it up.

"Ah, sounds like Malia as she lives and breathes.

Always the imposter." Somehow, talking to Wystan feels surprisingly good, and I can’t help but go on.

"At least she can prize herself with being really good at it.

I totally bought her act."

"Yep, cheers to that.

At this point I don’t even know where the act started.

She lived with the enemy until she was ten. That’s plenty of time to corrupt a child. And I know everyone keeps telling me she didn’t know who she was back then, but that would mean it was real, right? How could that have been real when she fought against us so recently? If that was real, how could she just watch Dustin get killed?" Wystan’s voice breaks, and I have no idea what to do.

I’ve never been one to comfort people and have an embarrassingly small amount of experience in that department.

On top of that, I have no idea if Wystan and I are – I don’t know, friends? I’m relieved from making a decision as Wystan goes on.

"I really hate her, you know.

And I hate that I do because if things were different, it would be her I would talk and turn to right now.

But I can’t because I blame her for his death. She was our best friend and we loved her so much. How could she do this to us? To me?

"First, she left us, and Dustin became everything to me.

Now that he’s gone, I’m all alone and I don’t know what to do." They’re crying by the end of their little speech, so I end up pulling them into a hug.

So far, Wystan has always seemed strong and composed, and seeing them fall apart like this just feels wrong.

Besides, I really can relate to feeling all alone.

I’ve had two people that meant something to me in my adult life. Kaz and Malia. And like Wystan, one of my loved ones is dead and the other is Malia, who turns out to have never felt anything for me in return. Nothing I’d want her to feel toward me, at least. Damn if I don’t know how much that hurts.

After a while in our embrace, Wystan pulls back and wipes their face.

"I should get going.

I think you’ve lost enough for today.

See you," they say, leaving after I tell them goodbye. I hang back a little before going home myself.

By the time I close my door behind me and settle down at my dinner table, it’s already dark outside.

I switch on the light and bury my face in my hands, feeling a cold tingle descend along my spine.

It’s alarming. While I haven’t felt truly comfortable in my place since Malia left, tonight, it’s even worse. I’m feeling unreasonably exposed with my back turned to my living room.

Outside, the wind’s howling, which only sets me further on edge.

Living this close to the forest has never felt worse than right now.

Dead leaves smack against my windows, and my muscles twitch at any and every sound.

When my floor creaks right behind me, my heart goes into a freefall, but I brush it off as paranoia and force myself not to look around.

It’s just the wind.

I try to reassure myself, but when another sound seems to come from even closer, I can’t help but look behind me. What I see nearly scares the life out of me, and I jump from my chair, scrambling away as far as I can as my breathing comes in short rasps.

There’s a person in my living room.

Another sound to my left makes me reluctantly look away from the cloaked person only to see another figure in my home.

Oh, fuck no.

I guess this is what Malia warned me about when she insisted my home wasn’t safe.

I didn’t see any signs of forced entry.

Then again, I didn’t check my home as I should have when I came back.

The strangers slowly creep closer, eerily still, and I’m not going to lie; they’re scary as fuck.

Seriously, it’s like they’re part of the darkness and the only sign that they’re not actual shadows are their eyes.

To my horror, I realize that I have no weapon on me.

Why should I? I don’t usually expect enemies to break into my home as silently as the dead.

There’s a crashing sound to my right so I turn around, expecting another person only to find a broken mug on the floor.

I realize my mistake immediately and turn back to the invaders.

"Lesson one, never turn your back on the enemy and don’t get distracted". I can practically hear Malia’s voice scolding me for forgetting what she taught me so quickly.

I finally suck my fear up and get into fighting position.

They’re only two, I can take them.

With the things Malia taught me, I should be able to at least scare them off with my element.

I try my nitrogen trick on the person in front of me only to see them completely unaffected.

Is this what Malia meant when she talked about shielding? Or is it another fire handler counter-working it? Whoever planned this mission clearly knew enough about me to plan this.

So, this might not be as easy as anticipated.

So far, they haven’t attacked or killed me, though, so I try not to panic as I back up until my back hits the wall.

Usually, I would never box myself in like this, but I can’t stand the thought of a third invader being somewhere around, ready to stab me in the back when I’m exposed.

The person to my left comes charging at me with a raised short sword.

I only barely manage to twist my body out of the way of their death blow, but the blade still shallowly slices through upper my arm.

I barely have time to curse before the other person comes at me as well.

I shoot a blaze of fire in their face, but they easily part the flames to get a clear way to me.

That’s bullshit, seriously. How should I fight them if my powers don’t hurt them and I don’t have any weapons?

The second person has two twin daggers with which they’re now coming at me like a damn wrecking ball.

I try to kick out their knee and dodge, but they jump right over my leg as if they saw the attack coming from a mile away.

At this point, I’m just doing a miserable job at defending myself and blocking since the second stranger manages to cut a very not-so-shallow cut right across my stomach in their third-or-so try. Once that is done, the two of them start backing up.

I wish I could be glad for that, but I know better.

They’re backing up because their job is done, and they know it.

I clutch my wound helplessly only to feel my warm blood gushing through my fingers and onto the floor. The next breath I take is painful.

Dizziness grips me with a vengeance, making me fall to my knees before I hit the ground as a limp blob.

In a desperate attempt to change my fate, I try to heal the gash, only to realize that I’m lacking the power to do so.

I should probably be really scared or sad or even angry that I’m dying alone and it’ll probably take days, if not longer until someone finds my body, but I don’t really care.

My life hasn’t exactly gone the way I planned so far, so perhaps whatever comes next will be better.

I faintly hear the shadows leave my house, and all I feel is relief.

At least I am home.

Although what made this place feel most like home is not here and now, she won’t ever be again. At least not with me.

As my adrenaline wanes and my energy quickly drains from my body, I finally feel the full impact of my wounds.

I wheeze at the spreading pain, shutting my eyes tightly in hopes to make it stop.

It’s all hopeless though. I’m dying and have the luxury of it being quite excruciating. Well, at least it took two Shadow Handlers while I was unarmed. That’s something to soften this blow and soothe my ego.

I must be losing too much blood too quickly because I feel a slap on my face.

Opening my eyes with an effort, I see a familiar face crouch over me.

I know this person cannot actually be here. My vision is blurry, and my eyelids feel heavy, but I’ll always recognize her face.

Even if this is just an angel wearing a mask to greet me in the afterlife, though, it makes my heart feel lighter and the pain seem duller to stare into those beautiful blue eyes one last time.