Rebirth

by D. C. Alexander

  I realized I had my eyes closed. I could see without opening my eyes? I got an answer that explained something about not using light to see, using other vibrations.

  Dirt chimed in “Other self.” Damn it was getting crowded in my head. What did that mean, I wonder?

  “Mags, can you tell me what is goin’ on? I am getting stuff in my head I can’t understand from the necklace, and dirt tells me I should use…never mind.”

  I needed a filter to handle the conversation!

  Mags said “(she used that word again, the snot gargle thing) not talk like me. Push knowing in your head. Have different time, not same time as we.” She was talking really slow, it was hard to explain complex ideas in a new language.

  I said “Yeah, I got it, I need an alter ego. A different part of myself that doesn’t care if it makes sense and just exists.”

  I pulled out my ‘talking with dirt’ persona and tried the necklace again. It worked a lot better now, not perfect, but I came closer to understanding. It took about a tenth of a second for it to tell me a lot.

  When the magical guy shot the ball of magic at me and Mags, I intercepted it with a sword inhabited by an iron elemental. The cold iron hitting the elemental energy the magic user was throwing shorted it out and there was a huge spark/explosion. That explosion more or less fused several things together; me; the iron elemental; a fire elemental born in that moment; and a wind elemental ditto. Fire wind and iron could make electricity, throw fire, make really hot fire or a not very strong breeze. Also had no set shape, was bonded to me, actually contained part of me and thus was sort of like an organ or something. It really didn’t like someone else touching it, handing it to someone was like putting my kidney in someone’s hand. But with the kidney able to shift into a really sharp bunch of shit, or turn into a fire that would burn iron…it had really took it easy on Mags.

  I got all that from the short thing it kinda said, and there was more that still needed to be unpacked, but that was enough for now.

  I explained what it had told me to Mags. She got ok with it, and I guess decided to hold off killing me for trapping one of these things. I made sure she was good with dirt and could talk directly with dirt, and called Carl over to see what we could do with him.

  “Carl, if you gonna get involved in this, you need some of this stuff. Come on over here and take off your shoes, I need you on the ground here.”

  He kicked off his shoes and started my way with a big grin, “You done made my day ”

  I interrupted him by sinking him armpit deep in the ground and hardening the dirt. I knew where he was going with that stuff.

  “Whup! Hey, no need to get hasty, just kiddin!”

  I requested dirt fill him with strength and energy, as much as he could take, and any speed or whatever else he could have. Then I had dirt raise him back up.

  “How you feel now, Carl?”

  “I’m, well, yeah, I feel pretty good. Why?”

  “Do me a favor and run down the street a little bit, and here, catch this” I threw a few coins I had in my pocket at his face from about three feet away, as hard and fast as I could.

  He had started to turn when I threw the coins. He stopped and caught them with one hand, using little darting motions to catch each one, even though they were all right together in a wad. He looked at me funny, “What was that about? You mad?”

  “No, you are faster now, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Yeah…Wow, yeah, that was fast, that money looked like it was floatin’! How’d you do that?”

  “Never mind that, run now and let’s see how you do.”

  He took off down the side of the road, slipping, looked like he needed more traction, but each step was probably ten or twelve feet to start with. He was hauling ass by the third step, I hollered for him to come on back and he made a big sliding turn and come back slower.

  Wanda was getting in the car, she had stopped when Carl started running, she was looking around with panic in her eyes.

  “We just testing out speed and running and stuff Wanda, nothin’ wrong. You go on and head out, it’s all ok here. “

  She got in the car without a word, made sure the kids were all in and the doors closed, and she headed on out.

  I turned to Carl and Mags “If y’all are sure you want to be in on this, let’s decide how we are gonna do it, then get a little rest before tonight. We got a couple hours if he waits till dark, let’s make sure we do everything we need to, and get this over.

  They agreed. We got down to planning and preparing.

  Eight

  I t got darker. Waiting on Chen to show up was horrible. We spread out; me in the house, Mags in the hedge, and Carl at his house. That decision was eating on me. What if he took after Carl or Mags first? I was inside. I wouldn’t know if either or both of them was attacked, unless I checked with dirt, then I might get a clue. But inside like I was I didn’t have the connection except down to the basement. If I left the living room I might miss the bloodsucker coming up on the porch. I needed to call them over, maybe go out on the porch. Something, anything. This was only about the millionth time I had been down this path. I rejected it each of those other times. Hands sweaty, my stomach was giving me a fit, somewhere between puke and maybe heart attack, my mouth was dry and I’d already drank enough water and coffee that I was constantly going to the bathroom, which was another worry, what if he showed up while I was back there? I didn’t want to have a showdown while hopping on one foot trying not to piss myself. That takes a lot away from an ass whuppin.

  I felt the presence, like the world holding its breath, when Chen got close. There wasn’t any missing it. I guess because I was paying attention, everything got real quiet, things I hadn’t noticed stopped and it created a very noticeable vacuum.

  I looked through the window blinds; I’d arranged them so I could see through the crack easily without having to move them.

  I peeked through carefully, and looked into Chen’s face. It took me by surprise – well, ok, I mean I ‘bout shit myself. As I fell back, I threw my hand toward him and blew the screen, window glass, blinds and Chen out with a blast of fire. No thought involved, it all happened in an instant.

  I jumped and shoved the door out of the way with my right hand as I tried to turn the knob with my left, I didn’t get the knob turned in time. The door took a chunk of the molding with it as it sailed on across the porch and hit Chen, who was coming back up the steps.

  He slapped the door out of the way and didn’t slow down, guess he was pissed, and he was on fire. It was falling off him in tatters and pieces as he moved, shedding those rotten skins and shit he was wearing. His face and hands had taken damage but the rest of him had been covered.

  I wanted to get to the yard so dirt could play but he was right in front of me and moving about like a bullet.

  Necklace kicked in, my right hand was covered and a blade stuck out about two feet, it felt like part of me, I swung it at Chen and he dropped down and leaned back, he was sliding and I jumped over him.

  I was headed for the yard but I hit the damn porch ceiling with my head and back. It didn’t hurt but it kinda bounced me and Chen was turning and getting back up from where he had slid.

  His lips were either pulled back or he didn’t have lips. What he had in his mouth was not some pretty white even teeth with dainty little fangs on the side like they was supposed to be. This mothafucka was still opening his mouth, and it was already open enough I could a put my head in it. Which I was not gonna do. The teeth were kinda brown and about as long as the first joint of my finger. They all looked sharp, very pointy, like triangles, and sat raggedy in his gums, pointed all over the place but all of them still pointed up. Or down in the case of the top teeth. The tongue was brown too, standing up and pointed at me. I was moving for the yard as fast as I could. I looked at the teeth and all and backed and scrabbled away for all I was worth from where I landed right at the steps. He got traction and come for me and I swung at him aga
in best as I could with my knife hand. That was pretty awkward since I was using it to push myself back with.

  The necklace kicked in and lengthened the knife, guess it was more of a sword, I don’t know when a knife becomes a sword but it had to be close, it ran out another foot or so at him.

  He pulled his hand back from where he had reached at me so I missed it, his body kept on at me and I caught him across his chest with a couple inches of the blade. It zipped on through him with a smooth feeling like I had cut through some water. Damn, that thing was sharp.

  Necklace was all up in my head, it was glad I liked the sharp and had a long, rambling discussion of what sharp was; I didn’t really have time to fuck with all that, even though it apparently only took an instant. Hitting him with the knife didn’t help me with the backing up, and I was moving too slow on my knees trying to back up or stand up or something better than crawling backwards and a little sideways, that just sucked.

  Chen helped me out by kicking the shit out of me. His foot caught me in the left shoulder and blew me out into the yard. From the crunch and the numb feeling, guess I could write that shoulder off. It didn’t hurt, that would come later. At least it didn’t tear off, I was happy about that.

  I spun as I flew, close to the ground, not a field goal, I saw him get his foot back under him and lean as he came for me again.

  Everything was slowed down a lot. I had time to reach down and dig my hand into the ground, the knife helped with traction and it pulled me to a stop. I landed sliding, on my knees and that hand, facing Chen, he was on the steps. Dirt didn’t hurt me when I slid, I felt myself getting…I guess better was the word, I felt like I could move easier and the shoulder was feeling like less of a total loss, not that I could use it yet.

  Necklace started talking about the fight, the advantages of sharp, sometimes dull was better; the fire was good, wasn’t it? Kind of fun, We/it/I ought to think about using fire as a knife/sword sometimes and not just shooting fire around, it had noticed we didn’t much like burning the window and maybe the house down. Plus it didn’t look like just cutting was doing much of a job on ol’ Chen.

  I pictured a sheet of fire hitting Chen in the neck, very hot and solid, necklace recommended holding my sword hand out toward him and I did so.

  Chen was floating down the steps at me, he had launched off the porch, and regardless of how fast he was, he didn’t have traction to go any faster. He was fast, though.

  I held my hand out at him and a foot-wide sheet of really bright light blue appeared at my hand and hit him half in the neck and half in the shoulder. The heat hit me like a physical object, I fell back away from it, I had no feeling in that hand.

  Some part of Chen drug across me, maybe a foot, I couldn’t see. My vision was shot, big blotches and black. Dirt was working on it as I fell, necklace was like, hey, cool! It/we/I noticed the damage but it was no big deal.

  I had to move, Chen was behind me now and I couldn’t see, had one shoulder left that worked and no feeling in whatever was left of my hand.

  I was laying on top of my folded knees so I rolled to the side and swung my arm as it came back out from under me, thinking about the knife getting longer and maybe flames on the knife. Would that work? Necklace was happy, flames on the knife were great! I didn’t know what good they would do or how hot they would be, but hey, anything could help.

  I heard a continuous rolling BOOM BOOM BOOM approaching and Carl hollering something about mothafucka, then Mags must have opened up with both barrels of the shotgun. I cringed, she had shot it in the basement and that was all the practice she had with it, no real telling what she would hit, and it was loaded with silver and salt we had replaced the pellets with.

  My vision was coming back, I got up and peered around, I could make out what had to be Chen down on one knee in the middle of the road. Carl was loading the pistol and was too close to him. Mags had a stick with a little fire on it running at Chen.

  I scanned Chen for damage, he was hurt, half his neck was gone but sealed up, his right collarbone was cut in two, he had silver in his back that was killing every part of him it touched, and four or five holes in body, legs and arms that hadn’t broken any bones, but tore up all sorts of tissue. Guess that was Carl’s.45.

  As he got up I realized he was putting himself back together damn fast, the bones would take a while based on what I was seeing, but the silver was getting pushed out and the flesh wounds were sealing up as I watched. All this took way less than a second, I finished getting to my feet as Chen rose up and headed for Carl.

  I realized I could fix his problems. Then another realization hit me.

  I unglued the tendons that tied his legbones to his muscles and he collapsed in the street.

  I walked over closer to where he lay in the road, he used his arms and flung himself at me. I Saw all the connections, all the way down to cells, all over and inside him; I released the connections in his arms for all his tendons. His arms dropped limply and he fell on his face.

  I stood over him, looking inside him. I couldn’t believe I had wasted so much time on this. It truly was a simple thing.

  “You will let me go, fix this now.”

  It was an order.

  I didn’t need to talk to this thing. I finally understood what I needed to do. I turned loose the connections that made each cell like each other cell in its body. He collapsed onto the pavement as a shower of stuff, dust and dandruff and slime and dirt. It was over.

  Nine

  I stood there shaking, hurts showing up now that everything had slowed down. Mags trudged up from the hedge and put her stick away. Carl walked over to the little pile of dust, ashes, I don’t know what you would call it. Wary, walking slow and balanced to move in any direction, still poking bullets into his clip, thinking there was a trick. I sat down heavily and put some thought into my shoulder, it had a lot of problems.

  “Carl, hey, can you come here and pull my arm straight?” He startled when I spoke, might have shot me if he had his gun loaded, the way he jumped.

  “Yeah. What the hell? Is that all that’s left?” He sidled over to me, not taking his eyes off the little heap more than he could help.

  “That’s it. He ain’t no more, I wisht I had knowed it was that easy.”

  “What happened? He was fixing to tear me up, then just kinda fell apart, but there wasn’t no sparkles. You sure he’s done?”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m sure. It’s over. I disconnected his pieces, ever piece from ever other one.”

  Mags stood there looking at me biting her lip, then back at the heap. It was spreading out, there was some slime on the pavement like a wet stain, the dry stuff was blowing around and getting lost.

  I didn’t know for sure though. While Carl tried to figure out how to pull my arm straight I took a moment to see if dirt was about to wipe me out. “Hey, is it ok that I dissolved that vampire? Am I in trouble?”

  Immediate reassurance; “Not an entity, not part of, outside. No penalty.” I could sense the actual conversation. The translation was dropping tons of information.

  “We are all clear, dirt says that was fine, good way to end it. All that damn fighting and getting hurt and burning my damn house up…The house!” It occurred to me that the house was on fire from blowing out the window with the necklace. I jumped up, Carl had just got a good hold on my arm and snatching it loose popped it back in the socket. That was a real relief. The house was not on fire, there was a little flame on the sides of the window and if we didn’t get it put out it’d catch. Thinking back, it seemed like the fight had took a while but it had only been a few seconds for the whole thing.

  I was feeling a little old and stiff as I shuffled into a run thinking I needed to get some water and put the fire out, I’d need something from the kitchen full of water, maybe a pot, glass might be too small, need a new window. I moved close to the window and put my hand out toward it, the little flames all ran together and leaped onto my hand. It was cute, they were cuddly, si
tting there on my fingers, running up and down my palm. Mild, soothing warmth touched me like holding a kitten. The window frame smoked. Carl ran up behind me, I turned to share the sight of the cute fire, it was so cute I couldn’t stand it.

  Carl screeched “Shit!” and grabbed my wrist, snatched it to his belly and tried to smother the fire against himself. He fell backwards and pulled me on top of him like that. I wound up kinda laying on top of him, arm down his chest across his belly, my hand was on his crotch and he was holding me tight against him.

  “Just hold still.” He writhed around trying to cover the fire.

  I looked at my hand on his crotch. Necklace was unleashing hellfire on him and I saw my hand brightening up. I told necklace to stop and put the fire away, Carl was not the enemy. Good thing we communicated quick, the crotch of Carl’s pants was already lit pretty good.

  I heard Mags laughing out in the yard. She was pretty ticked by the whole thing.

  “Carl, I’m ok, can you let me get my hand out of your crotch? I know you want to be closer but this ain’t the way.”

  He was a couple steps behind. He realized his crotch was on fire, reached down and tried to press it out but my hand was in the way so he wound up pressing my hand onto his smoking junk.

  I was getting pretty tickled, this was good. “Hey, you hot and all, but is this the place to show me this stuff?”

  Carl turned his head, it put our faces against each other, he was still holding me down. He tried to turn loose of my hand, but his junk was singed and he couldn’t stop pressing on it, which involved pressing my hand on it.

  I said “Really, you just now gone kiss me? After you done groped yoself wid my hand?” He smelled pretty good, the expression on his face was a mix of ‘oh shit’ and ‘kill me now’, with a little ‘hell yeah’ mixed in there. I kept on “I didn’t think you was that kinda man, I heard that fightin’ and such made people horny but this is ridiculous!”