Dauntless

by Thomas G. Atwood Jr.

  “Kacey,” he said, in a voice that shook the walls, “we need to talk.”

  Chapter 2

  “What the hell!” I screamed, inching away from Aidan.

  “Kacey, I can explain,” he said, reaching out to me in a gauntlet-clad hand.

  I picked up the knife Aidan was admiring off the floor and held it in front of me.

  “What are you?” I exclaimed, backing away from him.

  “That’s a little hard to explain…” Aidan said, causing me to let out a low, bitter laugh.

  “No, it’s a simple question to answer. Tiger upstairs is a cat, I’m a human, and Miss Carlson down the street is a hoarder who smells like day old oatmeal. See, it’s easy. What the hell are you? Are you a demon?”

  “I’m not a demon,” he answered, his voice flat and calm.

  “Are you some monster sent back in time? Do your people rule the world, and I created the resistance that can stop you? Did you come back to kill me?”

  “What? Holy crap, how much TV do you watch? I’m the same Aidan you’ve always known.”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “The Aidan I know has a hell of a jump shot, he can talk you into buying any useless piece of crap, but he sure as hell can’t do…whatever it is you did.”

  “Kacey, I need you to calm down.”

  “Give me one good reason to.”

  “Do you remember when we were in kindergarten?” he asked, a mollifying tone in his voice. “Do you remember how we first met? You pushed me over, stole my legos…”

  “And then you came over and helped me build them,” I said, beginning to lower the knife.

  “I’m the same guy you’ve always known. I’m the same guy who grew up with you, who’s gotten in trouble right alongside you. I’m the same guy that had a crush on you ever since you were out of pigtails.”

  “I…you…you didn’t like my hair when it’s in pigtails?” I managed to choke out. I let him move closer to me. The torches, his armor, and the darkness melted away, revealing him as he was a few seconds ago.

  Aidan chuckled as he wrapped me in a hug. I felt the last of my fear melt away as he enveloped me in his arms. Everywhere I was touched felt warm and relaxed, and I leaned my head against his chest, lost in the gentle drumming of his heart. I gazed up at him, and as his green eyes shone like emeralds I knew, no matter what he was, I loved him like the internet loved bacon.

  “Believe me?” he asked, stroking my hair.

  “Yeah,” I said, backing away. “So what are you?”

  “I wish I could tell you, Kacey. All I can say is that I’m the same guy you’ve always known.”

  “Yeah, with super powers.” I paced back and forth, trying to process what he was telling me. “So, everything is real?”

  “Yup.”

  “Vampires, werewolves, leprechauns…”

  “Yup.”

  “Santa Claus?”

  Aidan paused as if lost in thought. “As far as I know.”

  “I…I don’t know how to respond to that.” I collapsed on the couch, staring at my mom’s journal as if it was some sacred text. The pages seemed to take on new meaning to me. Exciting stories about being tracked by werewolves and vampires became terrifying stories as I imagined her running for her life. My imagination soon put me in her place, sprinting from the dozens of creatures in her journal. My mother had survived in a world where everything was out to kill, eat, or enslave her. The world that once seemed so…well, shitty, to be honest, was filled with countless terrors.

  “Finish it,” Aidan said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  “Finish what?”

  “The journal. You said the last few pages were about you, right? She might be trying to tell you something important.”

  I flipped to the last entry. “Despite all my fears,” I read aloud, “Kacey appears to have the same abilities as her mother.”

  “That’s an odd way to put it,” Aidan said, cocking his head at me.

  “I took Kacey to the park this afternoon,” I continued. “She tumbled from the swing set. I fear my daredevil tendencies may have rubbed off on her. The shattered bone began to repair itself before my eyes.” My eyes widened with each word I read, and my heart pumped against my chest as if longing to escape. “All my fears have come true: Kacey is a Mage. I’ve bound her powers until…” I dropped the book on the ground, numbed by everything I’d read.

  “What? What did she say?”

  “Until the day of her eighteenth birthday,” I mumbled. I stood up and grabbed a knife from the chest.

  “Kacey, what are you doing?” Aidan asked, concern flowing from his voice.

  “Maybe…maybe she’s wrong. Mom thinks I’m a Mage, whatever the hell that is, but maybe she’s wrong. Maybe I don’t have to be a freak.”

  “What makes you think you’re a freak?”

  “My mom was afraid of this. She didn’t want me to be one of the creatures in this book. Maybe she’s wrong,” I babbled with manic energy as I held the blade against my arm. “If she’s right, and I’m one of these…creatures, then I’ll heal from this like it’s nothing.”

  “And if she’s wrong you’ll end up in the hospital!”

  “Small price to pay,” I said as the blade dug deep into my forearm. The knife was so sharp that I didn’t felt any pain, and I kept digging until I heard the scrape of steel against bone. Blood ran from the cut like a river, the sticky, red liquid flowing over my arm and drenching the floor. Pain followed soon after, flooded through my arm, and causing my vision to blur. It drove me to the ground, and I held out my forearm as tears flowed down my face. For a split second, relief washed over me, as I saw the blood continue to bubble and bleed from the wound.

  The blood stopped in an instant. The dried bits caked onto my skin began to vanish as if being scrubbed away by thousands of miniature custodians. I watched in horror as my skin began to seal up, and before I could blink, the last remnants of the cut disappeared, leaving me with a small, white scar on my forearm. No, I thought to myself. No, no, no. I couldn’t breathe. I envisioned my mom standing in front of me, ready to kill me like the dozens of freaks she vilified. Every page had her spewing venom about her pleasure in slaying the vile, the monstrous, and the abominations. At that moment, I knew I failed her again. I was a freak.

  “Oh thank God,” Aidan said, inspecting my arm and letting out a slow gasp. “You had me worried.”

  “I…” The words couldn’t come out. Shame wrapped around me like a noose. I felt numb to everything, including Aidan’s arm wrapped around me in consolation.

  “I’m a freak,” I finished, staring at the floor as I sniffed.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Yes, I am. You saw what my mom wrote in her journal. I’m not human; I’m some monster that she’d want to track down and kill. If she were alive, she’d…” Tears flowed from my eyes as I sobbed, the mere thought stuck in my throat.

  “She’d want to kill me…” I finished. Tears rained down on the carpet, mixing with the blood.

  “You can’t think that. It’s not true,” Aidan said, holding me close.

  “You heard what she said! She was afraid that I’d turn into…into whatever I am.”

  “I don’t think that’s why. We don’t have all the answers, and I need you to hold on until we find out everything, okay? Promise me?”

  “What if I can’t?”

  “Then we’ll be freaks together,” he returned, beaming at me and giving me a playful nudge. “You have a gift, Kacey, and healing is the tip of the iceberg. You’re not a freak or a monster. You’re my best frie
nd, and I would tear down the gates of heaven and hell for you. I don’t care what anybody thinks; there is nothing that will make me think any less of you. If someone decides to hunt you, they’ll have to go through me first.”

  I gave a fake grin, but what my mom said in her journal continued to weigh on me like an anvil. I squeezed Aidan’s hand, and he helped me up as the phone rang.

  “Bad time,” I mumbled.

  “Hey girl, where are you?” Laurie’s voice echoed from the other end, bright and cheerful as always.

  “I’m still at home with Aidan.”

  “Why are you still there? Come on; there are zombies to kill. I can’t do it on my own.”

  I laughed. “Sure you can.”

  “I can, but I don’t want to. It’s your eighteenth birthday, girl! That means we need to party! Since they took away our fake ID’s last time due to a minor clerical error on my part…”

  “Minor error? You said I was 36.”

  “A minor error,” she repeated. “That leaves us two places to go in town. The all-ages club, which has people from high school I want to avoid or Elysium. So you, me, and zombie killing action in a half hour, or I will never forgive you.”

  I grinned despite myself. Laurie was always the cheerful one of the group. No matter what happened, she’d always be there with a joke to cheer us up. We’d been friends for so long that Laurie declared us sisters. She’d spent every day at my place to avoid her mom’s constant drinking. Her dad spent every day in DC, pretending his family didn’t exist. It never seemed to bother her. Whenever I asked her about it, she always said she’d prefer to spend time with her new family.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why? Oh my God, your dad’s still out of town, isn’t he? So you and Aidan are going to get some alone time, huh? Take my advice; your mattress is lumpy. Go for the sofa.”

  “Laurie!” I shouted, my cheeks turning beet red as I laughed.

  “What? Oh come on, you have drapes, no one’s going to see anything. Besides, you’re wound too tight. A little fun could do you some good.”

  “I am not doing that with Aidan,” I hissed.

  “Why not, give me one good reason.”

  “I’m not…he hasn’t…we’re not…”

  “Those aren’t reasons. They aren’t even sentences.”

  “You’re impossible.”

  “That’s what they tell me. You can come down and kill something with me, or you have some fun with studly do right over there. Either way, you have thirty minutes.”

  “Fine, we will be down there soon.”

  “Shoot, I was hoping for the other one.”

  “Goodbye, Laurie,” I said, hanging up the phone. Laurie always made my problems seem to go away. Her constant upbeat mode was infectious, forcing everyone around her to have fun.

  “What did Laurie want?” Aidan asked, sitting down on the couch and relaxing.

  “She wants to head to the arcade.”

  “Sounds like fun, are you up to it?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t know how to adjust to all of…this.”

  “Can I give you a piece of advice? Don’t. Put it out of your head. Let’s go out and have some fun.”

  “Not yet. Why were you so freaked when you heard about the journal?”

  “Kacey, I can’t tell you everything.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because if I did it would put all of us in danger. I need you to understand that. I won’t lie to you, but I can’t tell you everything. Do you trust me?”

  “Less than I did earlier,” I returned, berating myself for it. I wanted to use Aidan as a scapegoat for my life changing and for all of these secrets and lies coming to light. It was his fault; I thought to myself. If he hadn’t helped me bring that box in, if he’d kept his mouth shut when I found the journal, if I never met him, I would be a regular girl, not some freak. I knew it was unfair, but all of the anger of the day’s events fell on his shoulders.

  Aidan grimaced at the ferocity behind the statement. “I guess that’s fair.”

  “So what’s the deal? You’ve heard of this Blackrose lady?”

  “I’ve never dealt with her myself, but she was supposed to be a terror to some friends of mine. She hunted them down, strung them up, and executed them. Not that they didn’t deserve it,” he grumbled under his breath.

  “Okay, so what’s the big deal about her journal?”

  “Her journal is considered something of a Holy Grail to my people. Half of it is a collection of secrets, how to hunt various creatures and how to kill them. Their secrets, their fears, and so on. It’s a step by step by step guide to becoming the most feared killer in the world. That’s the one that you have in your hands.”

  “Alright, what’s the other half?”

  “The other half is a collection of spells, rituals, and alchemical compounds. Blackrose collected all of them during her career. If the wrong person obtained the information that journal holds, it would be bad.”

  “How bad?” Aidan stood up to pace around the room, glancing down at his shoes as he ignored me. “Hey, how bad could it be?”

  “It’s a kingmaker,” Aidan replied. “I don’t know what spells it has, no one does, but there's enough to fear someone getting their hands on both journals. The wrong person using it could raise an army, destroy a city, kill someone from halfway across the globe, maybe even worse.”

  “And you’re sure this is the same journal?”

  “Positive. No one would use that name, ever, unless they knew her.”

  “Do you think my mom was working with her?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied. I scoffed in response, and he ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know, Kacey! I don’t have all the answers; I don’t even have all the questions!”

  “Who does?”

  Aidan tapped his fingers across the mantel for several long minutes; his eyes closed.

  “I know a guy,” he said. “It’s a Hail Mary, but if anyone would be able to give us answers, it’s him.”

  “Great, when do we leave?”

  “We’re not doing anything,” he clarified. “I’m going to talk to him tomorrow, alone.”

  “Can I ask why?”

  “Let’s say this guy isn’t the sunshine and puppy dogs type. If you go in there, with your temper, negotiations will go south. This guy owes me a favor. I might be able to get him to talk to him alone.”

  “Why does he owe you a favor?”

  “I can’t tell you that,” Aidan returned, picking up his jacket. “Come on, let’s go to the arcade before Laurie freaks out.”

  “Great, sounds like fun,” I said, grabbing my old, beat up leather jacket as we filed into his car. I sat down in silence as Aidan started up the car, and we rolled out of my neighborhood.

  “Are we…you know,” he said, glancing over at me while I stared out the window.

  “Are we what?” I snapped.

  “Are we okay?”

  “Aidan, you came clean to me when you didn’t need to and helped me through finding out my mom’s secrets. You’re willing to deal with a sketchy guy, and use a favor, to learn what's going on. You’re an amazing friend. Of course, we’re okay.” Aidan grinned at the statement, his teeth flashing a brilliant ivory.

  “Of course,” I continued in accusation. “You’ve also been lying to me for God knows how long, and you plan to keep doing it. Hell, I’m not even sure I recognize you anymore.”

  “So all isn’t forgiven?”

  “Yeah, I�
��m not there yet.”

  Chapter 3

  The car rolled through the suburbs, and I glared outside. I remembered when I was a kid, and everything was different. Children played in the streets. People roamed the streets, browsing in dozens of small shops. The smell of baked goods, coffee and pretzels wafted through the air. People walked with a spring in their step, stopping to window shop and say hello to everyone they met. The worst thing you had to worry about was a speeding ticket. People were happy.

  That was before the city went broke and Olympus took over. The CEO for Olympus offered to bail Woodland Falls out of the crushing debt. All it wanted in return was a few minor concessions. Small things like eliminating three-quarters of the police force. Olympus Security took over, and a heavily armed security force occupied the town. These days every street corner had one of their security officers, clad in black body armor from head to toe. Each one cradled an automatic rifle as they glared at everyone who passed. The old restaurants and markets were bulldozed away, replaced with polished steel skyscrapers. The streets were teeming with the homeless, who couldn’t afford to live in the high-rise apartments Olympus built. Thugs roamed the streets, eager to beat and rob anyone they pleased. As long as Olympus got their cut, they’d never see the inside of a cell. Men in flamboyant purple suits beat their…employees in full view. Our city, my city, had gone to hell.

  The poorer district had the worst of it. The massive skyscrapers surrounded the poor part of town. Their enormous shadows cast the streets in perpetual darkness. Street lamps and traffic lights never worked, giving just a faint flicker. Flaming barrels illuminated the streets and families huddled around them for warmth. The district had become known as the Shade and no one who entered stayed there for long.

  That is, of course, you had a penchant for gaming.

  Elysium was the sole, constant source of light for the Shade, gleaming with bright red and green neon lights. The city had several arcades, but Elysium reigned as king. Spotlights shone over the building, flashing and strobing to draw people. The owner, Lachlan, stood at the door every night, eager to greet the day’s competitors.