Chronicles of the Apocalypse: Revenge, Everything is Nothing

by Zachery Richardson

  Leah chuckled and slid the waffles into the toaster.

  “So,” Jin continued. “That boy I saw last night, is he your son?”

  “Yeah, his name is Will.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Fifteen.”

  “Hmm,” Jin said to himself, looking toward the window.

  “What is it?” Leah asked, sensing Jin’s slight change in demeanor.

  Jin snapped his head back up, surprised.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “I asked you what was going on,” Leah answered. “Your eyes got a little hazy for a second there.”

  “Oh, that. It’s…it’s nothing.”

  Leah narrowed her eyes, silently telling Jin that she wasn’t that easy to lie to.

  “My son,” Jin conceded. “He’d only be a couple years younger than him.”

  Leah sighed, and the waffles were popped out of the toaster.

  “Milk okay?” she asked as she pulled a pair of plates from the cupboard next to the refrigerator.

  Jin nodded.

  “Listen, Jin,” Leah said, her voice dropping an octave. “I know that I’m really crossing a bunch of lines here, but…”

  She paused. Should she really tell him this? Judging by what she’d heard him mutter in his sleep, the answer was yes.

  “My husband died,” she said, “seven years ago.”

  “I’m…sorry,” Jin said, taken aback by the news but confused as to why she’d said it.

  “You don’t need to be. But uh…you have a bad habit of talking in your sleep.”

  Oh, damn, Jin thought, closing his eyes tightly and kneading his forehead in frustration.

  “You didn’t say anything bad, but you were talking about your kids and…”

  Leah stopped and shook her head, this wasn’t sounding right at all.

  “Look, Jin, all I’m trying to say is that I know what you’ve been through. I know what it’s like to lose someone you love. I’ve been there. And if you don’t learn to let go, at least just a little bit, then…your pain will consume your entire life.”

  Jin gave a short laugh. What Leah was saying might have been true for her, but whatever she may think, their situations were completely different.

  “With all due respect, Leah,” Jin said, “you have no idea what I’ve been through.”

  Leah bowed her head.

  Well so much for that idea, she thought, disheartened.

  “So,” Jin continued, brightening the tone of his voice. “How about those waffles?”

  Leah nodded, turned back to the toaster and gathered up the waffles. She moved to hand Jin his plate, but her grip was slightly off and the plate slipped from her hand. Jin saw that, and in the blink of an eye, he was leaning forward holding the plate of waffles.

  Thank God Victor didn’t break my right arm, Jin thought as he looked up at Leah.

  Her eyes were popping out of her head in surprise, and a boyish, ear-to-ear grin spread across his face.

  “How did you do that?” Leah burst out in astonishment.

  Jin’s grin only widened.

  “I have good reflexes.”

  “I’ll say!”

  Jin chuckled and walked over to the table opposite the kitchen with Leah following him.

  “So, Leah,” Jin asked as he sat down. “You a nurse, doctor? Because I doubt that the average American would know how to do this.”

  Jin gestured to his splint.

  “Nurse, aiming for doctor,” Leah replied. “Used to be anyway but…things didn’t work out.”

  Jin took a bite out of his waffles and then reached for the syrup.

  “So what do you do now?” he asked.

  “I work at a bookstore. It’s not really where I wanted to be, but it pays the bills so…I guess I can’t complain.”

  “Fair enough,” Jin replied, taking another bite of his waffle.

  “So,” Leah asked. “What do you do for a living?”

  “You have the ability to ask me any question you can think of,” Jin said, “and you ask about my occupation?”

  “Oh ho, a swordfighter!” Leah fired back. “Nice deflection! Shame I’m too good for that.”

  Jin eyebrows arched. She really was a fighter, and a damn good one at that! It had been a long time since Jin had met anyone like her, and he found the challenge exhilarating. It made him feel alive for the first time in years.

  “Swordfighter eh?” Jin came back, grinning again. “You don’t even know.”

  Leah leaned forward with her elbows on the table, chin in her hands, and eyes shining with excitement. She was daring Jin to challenge her.

  “Try me.”

  Jin laid his right arm on the table and leaned forward himself, gleefully accepting Leah’s challenge.

  “I had my black belt in karate by the time I was eight.”

  Leah didn’t even bat an eye.

  “I’ve been studying aikido for three years and tae kwon do for two.”

  Jin leaned in even farther, aiming for intimidation.

  “I actually am a master swordsman.”

  Leah leaned in as well, far from being cowed.

  “What good is a weapon if it’s taken away from you?”

  “What makes you think I won’t get it back?” Jin said, leaning forward again.

  “What makes you think I’ll let you?” Leah responded, leaning farther in as well.

  Ho ho, Jin thought, grinning. This girl is good!

  Indeed she was. Rather than try to find a way around Jin’s evasiveness, Leah was challenging Jin head on! Her last retort sent shivers of excitement trailing up and down Jin’s spine, and it ignited his blood. The thrill of such a challenge raced through his veins so quickly and intensely that he could taste it. It was as if his whole life he’d been dying of thirst and Leah’s eager challenge was his first taste of water. He wanted, no, needed more.

  “What makes you think that’ll stop me?” Jin said, his grin still firmly in place as he leaned forward a little more.

  Now it was Leah’s turn to feel that rush. She never could resist a challenge either, and Jin was a challenge unlike any other. Her blood ran hot, and her heart rate increased; it was as if she were locked in a desperate struggle for her life and Leah loved every minute of it. The harder Jin fought, the more exhilarated Leah became, which in turn compelled her to fight just as hard. But now, as she stared into Jin’s emerald eyes, she found them to be shining with boyish glee. He was loving this just as much as she was! Leah shivered on the inside, but on the outside, she leaned into Jin’s challenge even more.

  “What makes you think I want to?”

  Jin’s breath caught in his throat. There was a line that he didn’t have a comeback for! And it wasn’t just the words. Leah’s tone of voice had gone from playful seriousness to a silky purr. Jin looked into her eyes and found them shining with both desire and challenge. Her message was perfectly clear; she was daring Jin to continue, to take it to the next level. It was then that Jin became acutely aware that due to their continuous leaning, their faces were barely four inches apart! Desire, powerful and primal, crept insidiously throughout Jin’s body, and his grin disappeared. His next breath was slow and ragged. He wanted very much to continue, but then, some semblance of reason returned to him and his mind cleared substantially.

  Jin chuckled. “Oh, don’t think you’re going to beat me that easily.”

  Leah’s face fell. She’d been enjoying the verbal sparring match!

  “I’ll give you this round, Leah Lawson, but I promise you that this battle is far from over.”

  At that, Jin took a final bite of his waffles and stood up, taking the plate over to the sink. Leah stared after him, incredulous! He surrendered? Just like that?

  “What’s the matter?” she challenged. “Afraid of a little challenge?”

  Upon hearing her voice, Jin turned around and smiled.

  “Not at all,” he said. “I love a challenge. Unfortunately, I don’t think rising t
o meet this one would be particularly wise with my arm in the shape it’s in.”

  “Ah,” Leah said, getting up and walking to the kitchen. “Thanks for reminding me. I’ve got something for that.”

  Jin gazed at Leah curiously, cocking his head to one side, and Leah began rifling through her grocery bag again. After a moment, she came up again with a sling in her hands.

  “Even though your lower arm is fine, it’s best to keep the whole arm immobile so the bones have a chance to set properly.”

  Jin nodded, and offered up his left arm, and let Leah work it into the sling. It took a minute, as Jin’s upper left arm was a little stiff and still very tender, but in the end they pulled it off.

  “Guess this means I won’t be wearing my coat for a while,” Jin said jokingly.

  Leah chuckled and just then, a shrill series of beeps caught their attention and Leah reached into her pocket, pulling out a cell phone.

  “Hello?” she asked, holding up a finger to Jin to indicate she needed a minute. “Hey, Will, how are you?”

  Jin could hear Will’s reply with more clarity than he expected. Apparently, Will was quite upset about something.

  “Oh, your karate exam! I forgot!”

  Leah suddenly jerked the phone away from her ear, Will’s shouting astonishingly loud.

  “Calm down, Will,” she said once Will was done. “I’ll be there in less than ten minutes!”

  At that, Leah hung up and stuffed the phone back into her pocket.

  “I’m sorry, Jin, I’ve got to run. Will is testing for his purple belt in his karate class, and I told him I’d be there.”

  “Oh?” Jin asked suddenly curious. “How long has he been taking it?”

  “A few years. Why, did you want to come?”

  Though he hid it on the surface, inwardly Jin grimaced. If he’d really been out of it for four days, and he was still alive, one of two things had happened. Either Victor had been so sure that Jin fallen to his death that he’d reported it to Dorigan without checking for a body, or Victor had spent the last four days looking for him, furious beyond reason that the search had turned up nothing. Regardless of which it was, all of Jin instincts were telling him that he needed to leave, and leave soon.

  All of them that is, except one.

  There was something new in his heart, a strange pull that made him reluctant to be parted from the woman before him. That same thrill of excitement he felt during their verbal sparring match stirred within him and sent tingling heat down through his spine and into his extremities.

  Something of it must have shown on his face, for Leah was now looking at him with some small bit of concern.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Huh?” Jin said, snapping back to reality. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “So, you wanna come?”

  “To what?”

  Leah giggled. “My son’s karate class.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure,” Jin said, instantly regretting it as he knew it was the wrong answer but being simultaneously unable to say no.

  “Well okay. Follow me then, swordfighter.”

  Leah grinned playfully and Jin returned the grin, leaving his coat on the chair and following her as she led him down the hall.

  --<(0)>--

  For the fifth time that day, William Lawson was knocked on his ass by his karate instructor, Marcus Williams.

  “How many times, William?” Marcus asked, voice loud and heated. “How many times must I tell you to keep your guard up before it finally sinks into that thick skull of yours?”

  William growled angrily at Marcus and shoved himself back to his feet, pushing several locks on his blondish brown hair back behind his ears. He crouched back into his defensive stance and kept his muscles tight with hate and anger. Marcus dropped back into his offensive stance and attacked William again. William managed to block a blow or two before a brutal side kick from Marcus sent him sprawling once more. Winded and wheezing, it took William a good deal of time to get back to his feet.

  At that point, Jin and Leah entered the dojo. Jin looked curiously around, trying to gauge how well the master was instructing his students, while Leah looked concernedly at her son, who was barely back on his knees. As she watched him, William looked up, and once he saw that his mother was watching, he ground his teeth and forced himself to stand up.

  However, this didn’t work as well as William would have hoped. Because his lungs were still straining for air, William’s blood didn’t have quite enough oxygen to sustain the effort of standing straight up, and as a consequence, William only managed to stumble forward into one of the long benches that lay by the dojo’s entrance, in front of his mother.

  As William did this, Marcus went back to teaching the class at large, and Jin watched him intently.

  One of Jin’s first criticisms was simply the way Marcus had built himself. The man was maybe five foot two at the absolute tallest, yet he had the muscles of a body builder. While all those muscles would undoubtedly make him stronger, they would also slow him down and throw off his balance. Jin then moved on to inspecting his technique, which was only marginally better. The stances he taught would undoubtedly work on Mr. Joe Average, who knew next to nothing about the martial arts, but against a true martial artist, let alone one of Jin’s caliber, they held a handful of wide openings that would be all too easy to exploit.

  Jin also noticed that of the assembled students, not one of them possessed a black belt.

  That definitely says something about how successful an instructor this guy is, Jin thought with a slight smile.

  Satisfied with his assessment, Jin walked over to Leah, who was talking to her son.

  “Sorry I’m late, Will,” she said. “It took us longer to get here than I thought it would.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s probably for the better anyway,” Will said, still fuming. “I didn’t get it. Wait, did you say us?”

  At that, Will turned around and saw Jin standing next to his mother.

  “Oh,” Will said. “You’re awake, finally.”

  Jin nodded. “That I am.”

  Will looked as though he were about to question Jin about his arrival on the roof that night, but Leah gave a slight quiver of her head to tell him to stow it.

  “So, what are you doing here?” Will asked instead.

  “Your mom said you practiced karate and, being a martial artist myself, I thought I’d come by and check things out.”

  “You’re a martial artist?”

  Jin nodded.

  “Is that how your arm got broken?”

  At Will’s question, Leah looked up at Jin, who merely shrugged.

  “In a way, yeah.”

  Will looked away thoughtfully for a moment, shrugged, and then turned back to Jin with a small light in his eyes.

  “Well, since you’re a martial artist, maybe you can help me with something.”

  “Okay,” Jin said as Will stood up.

  “This is the defensive stance that Marcus, our instructor, taught us,” Will said, stepping into the stance.

  At such close quarters, the holes that Jin had previously noted in the stance jumped out at him with startling clarity. In this stance, Will would be able to block one, maybe two blows from an attacker. After the second blow, however, Will’s entire torso was exposed to attack. Again, Mr. Joe Average probably wouldn’t notice, but anyone that trained under a proper instructor would.

  Jin grimaced.

  “What?” Will asked.

  “Well, either you grossly misunderstood what your instructor was trying to teach…”

  Will bristled.

  “Or he himself is one of the many petty brawlers out there,” Jin continued, “who takes advantage of people’s enthusiasm and desire to learn martial arts.”

  “So what’s wrong with my stance?” Will asked.

  “Well for starters,” Jin began. “Standing like that throws off your balance. If I were to just push you…”

  Jin placed his right ha
nd on Will’s guard and lightly pushed him backward. Even with such minimal force, Will stumbled.

  “So how do I counter that?” Will asked, regaining his balance.

  “Lean forward and extend your rear leg back farther.”

  Will made the changes, and Jin pushed him again. This time, Will was unaffected.

  “The second problem is much harder to change.”

  Will looked curiously at Jin.

  “The biggest problem with this stance, even with my corrections, is that it does not allow you to easily counterattack. And even if you tried, it would take so long to get into an effective position that your opponent would be able to get a series of free shots on some very dangerous targets if he knew what he was doing.”

  “So how do we fix that?”

  Jin gazed at Will with sudden curiosity.

  “You need an entirely different stance,” he said simply.

  “Could you show me?”

  Again, Jin paused. Something about Will was just outside of his comprehension. Just like his mother, Will possessed an intriguing, yet indefinable quality. He wasn’t a fighter in the same sense that Jin or his mother were, but Jin could see a drive to learn the martial arts, and an underlying passion that Jin couldn’t quite place.

  “I could,” Jin said slowly. “But with the shape my arm is in, I wouldn’t be able to teach you properly.”

  “Oh,” Will said, crestfallen and trying very hard not to show it. “Okay.”

  At that, Marcus dismissed the class and the dozen students in the class moved over to the benches to collect their things. Jin and Leah moved around a little so the other students could get their stuff together, and Will sat back down on the bench, looking sullen. As the rest of the students began to file out of the dojo, Marcus walked up to Will.

  “So,” he said somewhat coldly, earning an unnoticed glare from Jin. “You thin out your skull any since you’ve been sitting here?”

  Highly affronted, Leah moved in to defend her son, but Jin held her back. She looked sharply back at him, and at the sudden movement, Marcus looked up too.

  “Can I help you?” he asked, voice still cool.

  “Ah,” Jin said, lifting his expression into one of bright courtesy. “No, sir, sorry. I’m Jin, Jin Sakai.”