Victima

by K R Leikvoll

  "There has to be something I can do. I will not just sit by and let him die!" the man yelled in distress. Alex was trying to keep the boy cool and the father calm.

  "We have done all we can do. Now, we wait and hope that the light spares him," she whispered grimly. She wiped a wet cloth on the boy's face. The man had tears welling in his eyes as he stroked his son’s cheek. His hands were odd with nails that appeared more like claws. Despite that, it didn’t leave a mark on his face.

  "Eve will not live through the grief if he passes, Alexandra. If not for his sake, or my sake... for your sister's sake!" the man said, grabbing Alex's hands. His expression was full of despair and he was searching her for some sort of solution. Alexandra pulled her hands away from him.

  "I know what you are asking me, but I cannot knowingly let you do it, Jack. It would be a curse!" she said. "This boy doesn't deserve to live a cursed life!"

  Alexandra started to shake uncontrollably, clearly overcome with emotions. She covered the boy with her body, smothering her sobs.

  "You would rather see my son die than live?" Jack asked, his voice quivering. Alex wasn’t paying attention to him as she cried over the child. He tried pulling her off of who I assumed to be Arturio, but she refused to leave his side.

  "You would let him die!"

  After a period of Alexandra crying, the boy began to wail in pain. His small body began to seize. Alexandra desperately cried, "Arturio, I'm so sorry." She removed herself from his shaking form.

  "Do it!" she yelled at Jack as the boy's mouth began to foam. His eyes rolled into the back of his head.

  Jack shoved Alexandra out of the way and pressed his thumb to Arturio's forehead. I could see the boy’s form changing. His tortured screams echoed through the cabin and into the woods. The sphere was slowly dissolving; as I turned around, I could see Eve's pale form running toward me like a wraith. I tried to force the vision to continue, but the real world dragged me back into its gravity.

  The vision faded away faster than the conclusion. I was only able to watch Eve make it to the door before I was brought back to Earth—I mean Praetis. My back was braced on the outside of the cabin. I stared into my hands covered in dirt from my fall. I blinked the daze away. What happened to Arturio? More importantly, what was I supposed to learn from that? My mind strained as hard as it could for an answer that wouldn’t come.

  When I finally glanced up, Alex was crouched on my left side. Kirin was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the door drinking from another flask. He was staring at the tree line, clearly still in a pissed-off mood. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest. Guess that much time hadn’t passed.

  "Val? Are you there?" Alexandra said as she shook me softly.

  "What happened with Jack and Arturio?" I asked immediately. I had to know. My brain was straining from the stress of trying to recall it as if I had been there. The déja vu of my current surroundings were so intense... I almost forgot about Earth entirely.

  Kirin pushed himself off the wall and walked in front of me, almost falling nonchalantly in the process. He crouched down in front of me on my other side.

  "What did you see?" Alex implored. She sat down entirely and waited patiently for my response.

  "You were there... and Jack and Arturio were, too. Arturio looked like he was dying, and Jack did something to him. I didn't see what. The vision faded too soon," I said quickly. I was impatient to know what happened.

  Alexandra and Kirin shared a look before she was ready to speak.

  "The light in Arturio was killing him because of his beast blood. The only way to save him was to curse him with some ancient Dryad spell. It rid him of the light, but at a cost," she said. She was reliving the moment I could tell; her face was written with twisted thoughts.

  "Is he still alive?" I asked. It would be kind of weird to have a brother, but it would be nice not to be an only child. My Earth parents hadn't had any children besides me. I assumed that they didn't want to have another kid around the "schizophrenic." Earth parents… strange concept.

  "I believe him to be alive and well. When we last parted, he was in the only remaining society in Kaeda. I cannot tell you if the city still stands now, but we haven't had any news," she said. She sounded like she was trying to reassure herself that he was alive.

  "There's just one more thing though…" I started. They both stared at me intensely. "Jack doesn't look anything like me. I don't think he's my dad."

  And I was right, he didn't look like me. I had full lips, large eyes, normal ears, blonde hair... nothing like Jack. Even as a small child, I could tell that Arturio was Jack's son, and since I didn't look like Eve, I didn’t believe it to be likely that we were related. He wasn't even a demon, right?

  Alexandra opened her mouth to speak, but Kirin cut her off.

  "Leave us," he said commandingly.

  "Nobody knows the truth of Eve and Jack’s demise. We have no way of knowing what happened after—” Alexandra started saying before Kirin interrupted again.

  "Leave. Us."

  Alex shot him a glare. I wasn't sure in the slightest why she listened to him, but she did. She stormed off back inside, slamming the door behind her. I looked fearfully at Kirin who seemed to be entering a strange fit of drunken rage. He grabbed my arm and ripped me to my feet.

  "We need to go somewhere private. Let's go," he growled, pulling me into the woods. It was getting dark, and I could hardly see where he was taking me. His grip was digging in so hard, I felt like he was going to break my bones.

  "Please let me go. You're hurting my arm," I said, trying to remain calm. Every time I got angry, it seemed to escalate the situation so I stayed quiet. In actuality, my body was tensed, ready to run at any moment. I was done being manhandled by him constantly.

  Kirin pushed me up against a tree. I could see the smoke rising from the cabin in the clearing, but I couldn’t make out anything nearby past his towering form.

  "You are going to answer me with absolute honesty," Kirin hissed.

  "Let go of me first?" I asked calmly. For only a moment, he actually assessed his actions and let me go. It only added to his fuming. "Why are you pissed this time?"

  He was still so close it made me uncomfortable.

  "Did you have sex with James?" he asked with no forewarning. My stomach dropped.

  "No!" I responded too quickly, humiliated.

  Why the hell was that any of his business? I mean, I never did anything with James, but it still wasn't his business! The thought of James and something like that… it caused me to blush furiously from pure shame. I had never thought of him that way in life, but since he had been gone I missed him desperately. The feelings of grief and our confusing relationship were making it hard for me to pinpoint exactly how I felt about him. I did know one thing, and that was that I loved him, more than anyone else in my life.

  "Tell me the truth!" Kirin said sharply. He was so close to my face I could smell the wine on his breath. Clearly it was meant to intimidate me, but it did the opposite.

  "He never did anything to me!" I yelled back, finally losing my temper. "He never laid a hand on me, unlike you!"

  That was all it took to set Kirin off.

  "Never compare me to that monster! Ever!" he shouted in my face. Enough of this. I shoved him away from me as hard as I could. He barely moved.

  "He was the only person that was there. Not you. You are not my hero, Kirin!" I said, shaking from rage. "You are an insufferable asshole!"

  "That's it then. You're his... he's your…" he trailed off.

  "His what? God, you need to lay off the booze!"

  "He's your father. That's the only explanation for your existence and his abstinence," he finished. His words cut me. James…no, there was no way. I didn't believe that for a second. Sure, he had been with me since (I assumed) infancy, but our relationship was complicated. More like a brother or a close friend.

  "You're wrong again. He would've raised me himself if he was
my father. He was my best friend, not my dad," I said, utterly grossed out.

  "The James I knew would've cut your throat and finished in your corpse."

  I nearly had to pick my jaw up off the ground. I shoved my way past him and started back toward the cabin. James was not my dad, and he wasn't a monster like Kirin. I was glad Kirin was burning; he deserved the pain. He had no reason to treat me like garbage and force me around like a marionette. I'm a human being. I have rights.

  When I got back to Alexandra's hut, Kirin wasn't following me. I couldn't see him through the trees either. Oh, well. I preferred it that way. I was hoping he'd drink himself to death out there. I yanked open the cabin door, still in a rage, and slammed it behind me. Lydris might've been asleep in the corner because he flinched like he was about to be hit. Alexandra was serving food to Codd at a small table she had stuffed in the opposite corner. She nearly spilt it in his lap from how startled she was.

  "Where's Kirin?" she asked, peeking out of the window. She glanced back at me waiting for my response.

  "Don't care," I said. I could hardly get words out. I sat across from Codd and grabbed a wooden bowl. Alex poured broth out of a tiny pot in front of me. They were both giving me curious stares, but they didn't speak while I ate. More like drank; all Alex had been able to scrape together was some kind of vegetable broth. It didn't fill the empty spot, but I knew she tried.

  Codd finally broke the silence.

  "So where were you guys that whole time?" he asked curiously. Alex shot him an irritated scowl. Kirin probably wouldn't want me to tell them about the demonic power, otherwise they would've never left. I wasn't really sure what to say.

  "I had a vision from the Divines... just wanted to make sure we weren't missing anything," I said in monotone. I knew fully well he meant where I was after the fight in the desert instead of where I was a few moments ago. I really wanted to tell them everything in my anger, but I held it in. Instead, I watched the barely shimmering barrier out the window while my guts writhed from my nerves.

  “Did Eve make that barrier?” I asked quietly. The shield felt familiar to me since the vision. I doubted there was anyone to learn more from.

  “Yes,” Alex replied softly. “Thankfully, its integrity has never been tested. The demons have never dared take anything north of the Dreamwoods.”

  “So there’s nobody that can teach me more?” I whispered while I stared at the foggy white ring on my finger. I was hopeless at controlling it. How had they learned without another Divinus to teach them?

  Alex put a firm hand on my aching back. “We will find someone to teach you more. That’s a promise,” she said confidently.

  After some time of listening to Codd and Alex talk about life before the demonic invasion, she made various bedrolls for every person except Lydris. She even made one for Kirin in case he showed up. I curled into mine quickly, which Alex thoughtfully put closest to the fire. The flames looked less menacing than the pain I had felt the night before. I almost wanted to reach out and touch them, just to prove it to myself.

  Everyone else fell asleep long before me. Even the fire died before I was willing to consider it. I was replaying the events of my life in my head as I watched the smoke. It reminded me of the ethereal being's substance; I didn't hurt when I thought of the shadows anymore, but I couldn't recall the being entirely. It was all covered in the fog of my mind.

  I wondered who my real father was, since it was certainly not James. It couldn't be him, right? He wouldn't have let some other family raise me if I was really his child. He would've acted like a father. He wouldn't have let them send me away to the hospital. He would've protected me better. No... he was not my parent. Besides, why should I care who my father is when he was there just as much as Eve—not at all.

  Kirin finally returned when the steady glow of outside began to increase in intensity. It was very early, I could tell by the sounds of Codd snoring and Alex's random mumbles. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop my eyes from checking to see who was coming through the door. It led to horribly awkward eye contact. I was glaring; he was emotionless. He waved for me to come outside. I wanted to ignore him, but he began impatiently tapping on the door. I wanted to go on my own terms, so I rolled my eyes and complied. He shut the door softly rather than slam it like he usually did. Clearly, he had more respect for the people inside than he held for me.

  In the morning light, the nebula and stars were alien but petrifyingly beautiful. I was mesmerized. So much so that I didn't hear Kirin speaking to me. I never wanted to forget the sight. I wanted to take a picture and bring it back to Earth as proof of my experience.

  "Val," Kirin said quietly. I ripped my eyes away and glanced up at him. He was completely ragged. His hair was a mess and he looked like he hadn't slept a day in his life. "I'm trying to apologize to you. The least you could do is pay attention."

  "Start over," I said, crossing my arms across my chest. I was still feeling residual anger from earlier. He took a deep breath.

  "I know you don't know anything about James, but I shouldn't ruin his view in your eyes. He did keep you safe after all," he said. It sounded nothing like an apology. "But you have no proof yet that he's not your father."

  Ugh, of course. He couldn’t leave his shitty apology off on a high note. I turned my attention back to the sky.

  "I don't care who my father is, just like I don't care that Eve is my mother. Neither were there for me. It doesn't matter. I'm going to do this without them. I'm going to go home."

  "There won't be anything left for you to go back to. There never is," he whispered more to himself than to me.

  Chapter Twelve

  I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep at all. After Kirin left me outside, I sat memorizing the sky. I was going to go home, paint Praetis and never forget it. I always thought Earth was boring, but I missed my sun and my moon. My body felt off, as if Earth was calling me back with its gravitational pull. I couldn’t help wondering about people at home too as I sat. What were my Earth parents doing? Were they happier without me there, dragging down their lives?

  I ignored Alexandra when she came out to check if I wanted breakfast. I ignored them as they packed up their things inside. I ignored everything that wasn't the sky, the wind, and the heat. Meditation was an amazing thing. It helped me escape the mental hospital; I knew it would help me escape Praetis. Maybe without James' presence, I could live a normal life back home. Depending on how long it took to get back, I could try to get a new identity, go to another country. I wasn't really sure how one gets connections for that stuff, but I'm the Nephilim, right?

  Zariya's trotting startled me from my thoughts. She was carrying small dead animals that sort of reminded me of rabbits, happily munching on a raw one. It was no trouble ripping at its flesh with her pointed teeth.

  "Oh, Divinus, I missed you!" she said, grinning with her mouth full.

  “Why would you miss me?" I asked while cringing from the sight. Sick. Alexandra, Kirin, Codd and Lydris shuffled out of the cabin with their bags before she could answer. Kirin was lugging mine around, too. Ha! As if carrying my bag could make up for his shitty attitude. Zariya shot me a wink from over their shoulders.

  "Northbound!" Codd shouted, pointing at the sky. Alex was tugging Lydris around on his chain again. He was beaten to a pulp, but ungagged. He hadn't made a single noise since we regrouped. I wondered if they had finally knocked his senses back. His eyes were still covered in a dirty, bloodstained rag, and he kept his face emotionless, so it was hard to tell.

  Since we were walking in the direction of the planet in the sky, I had to assume that facing it was north. If Praetis rotated at all it wouldn't be super reliable, but I hadn't met any scientists yet.

  "Hey, Alex, where is your sun?" I asked as we lumbered around the trees.

  "I don't have a son, though I consider Arturio to be one," she replied with a genuine smile. I facepalmed.

  "No, THE sun, sorry," I clarified. She looked at me puzzled. I
n fact, Codd and Zariya were looking at me sideways with confusion as well.

  "Praetis does not have a sun like Earth," Kirin clarified ahead of us. "Our life developed from the heat of multiple stars and that planet, Asinea, though it’s believed sentient life came from somewhere else." He pointed in the general direction of the nebula as if it was the source.

  Interesting. I caught up to him, but I stayed slightly staggered back. I didn't want him to think I wasn't still angry.

  "How do you know what I was talking about then?" I quizzed him.

  "Stupid girl, I saw it in the sky," he replied, rolling his eyes.

  "How did you get to Earth? I'm going to need the keys to your spaceship when this is all over."

  He ignored me and cleared some brush out of the way for the rest of the group. I jogged around him in response and walked backward.

  "How are you planning to get me home?" I demanded to know. Instead of answering me, his face grew concerned while he stared in between the trees over my shoulder. Startled, I tried to turn around and tripped over my feet. Codd and Kirin shared laughter as Zariya hopped over and helped me up.

  "You know, I'm not going to save your asses next time. I'm going to let you get smashed."

  "I was the true winner of the fight. I cut the skull in half in one slash! Magic is nothing compared to Ser Codd!" Codd yelled idiotically. Yeah, right. We'll see next time. I wasn’t sure whether Codd was a simple-minded man, or if his walls were so high he was incapable of having a normal personality. Demon madness, I was willing to bet. I let everyone walk ahead of me. At least if I tripped again, I could embarrass myself in privacy.

  Lydris was dallying behind with me. He was more concerned with craning his blind face toward the sky to sniff the air. At first it seemed like he might’ve had something stuck in his nose, until he started shivering from whatever scent he was picking up on. I watched him do it at least three or four times before Alexandra noticed.