by Caleb Karger
She kicked her legs back and forth. “Sure, I do.”
“And I’ll believe that when pigs fly.”
She frowned and watched the water. “Well, if you hate it so much, you can always quit,” she said. I was used to her saying that phrase with more conviction. This time it was like she didn’t want to say the words.
“Is that really why you’re so hard on me? You don’t want me here?”
She dipped her fingers into the water and flicked a couple of drops at me. “I never said I didn’t want you here.” She stood up and wandered off into the darkness.
I shrugged and shook my head. If she wanted me here, then she sure had a funny way of showing it.
It was searing outside, but it wouldn’t last long. A storm was moving in. The clouds were bloated with rain and angry with lightning, and reached so high they dwarfed the mountains below them.
Everyone gathered around the pool. We watched Katherine, and Hot Stuff drive mini dump trucks up to the water, pouring in hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of ice. Katherine dropped gelatin dummy people into the deep end. There was one for each of us.
“This exercise is simple: you’re going to endure the delightfully refreshing water to rescue your victims,” Katherine said. “Keep in mind that you will be timed.” She put a whistle to her lips and blew.
One by one, the team started to wade into the water. I gritted my teeth as the water wrapped around my shoes. I thought it would feel good compared to the extreme heat. Now my body was miserable half-frozen and half-roasting.
The water was such a shock to my system that my body locked up. I stood there shivering for three minutes. My skin turned pale, and my fingers became numb. My teeth chattered. When I found the will to walk further into the pool, it felt like the water had gotten replaced with broken glass.
I shut my eyes. It felt like all of the heat in my body was draining out, but I knew it was pulling inward to protect my core. I focused on the heat gathering in my torso. I willed it to increase. I felt the tiniest bit of warmth radiate outward. It could’ve been in my head, but I was able to stop shivering. I swam for the deep end.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved being in the water because it helped to keep me at a comfortable temperature. Usually, I was too hot. There was only one thing I didn’t like about swimming pools—especially big ones—and that was the deep end.
My lungs compressed as I saw the nearly vertical dip in the pool floor. The water was darker and more menacing down there. I could see the dummies lying on the bottom. I almost had a heart attack when I saw mine was on the drain.
I went to the surface for air. I had to control my fear or I would run out of breath before I reached my dummy. First of all, it was impossible to get sucked through the drain’s grate. Second, there was nothing sinister living in the drain that could get me, but irrational fears couldn’t be reasoned with.
“Get moving!” Katherine hollered.
I dived back under. Lily swam by and gave me an encouraging wave. I nodded and inched closer to the deep end.
I tried to keep my eyes on the dummy and ignore the drain, but they disobeyed me. The bars on the drain were like white teeth over a wide mouth. It groaned and gurgled as it sucked the water towards it. I could feel it pulling me in.
I was afraid that if I got too close, I wouldn’t be able to escape its pull. Every part of me wanted to turn around, but I knew I couldn’t go without that stupid dummy. I just had to grab it, and then I could flee.
The darkness of the water closed in around me. The drain grew larger and larger until the dummy became the size of a pencil and the drain was as big as a state. All I could see was the abyss staring at me, waiting to pull me in.
I reached as far as I could and at last, I felt my fingers on the dummy. I snatched a limb and spun around. I launched myself towards the other end of the pool, forgetting my aches and pains. The next thing I knew I was coming out of the shallow water, gulping at the air.
“You’ve got some impressive sea legs there,” Hot Stuff said. “Took you five minutes to get out there and one-hundredth of a second to swim back. That’s the fastest time today.”
I blinked. “What?”
Hot Stuff went to time someone else, but I stood there unable to move. Had I really gone that fast? I looked over at Wolf who was drying off. I would’ve figured since he had the water power that he would’ve been faster.
“Well, I was going to give you a towel, but you seem to be drying off just fine,” Lily said. I looked down and saw I was steaming again.
“I guess the thought still counts,” I said and took the towel. I ran it through my hair as we sat down on one of the benches and waited for the others to rescue their dummies.
“I’m curious about what sort of ability will spring out of this heat thing,” she said.
I threw my towel down. “If any surfaces at all.”
“You just have to keep working on it. You’ll get it.”
“It’s hard to notice that I’ve made any improvement—”
“—because you have to outdo what you’ve already done.” Lily nodded, and we laughed. She looked at her palms covered in blisters. “I couldn’t get the weights over my head today, and look what it did to my hands.”
“That looks painful.” I shuddered.
“I’ve been reassured that they will heal and the softness will return. In the meantime, I have to put up with sand paper skin,” she said and shook her head.
The whistle screeched again. “Well, done. Everyone managed to save their dummies. Probably not before they drowned, but at least you retrieved a body,” Katherine said.
We finished as the clouds swarmed above us, dimming the bright day. Thunder began to rumble. Our commander paid no mind to the storm. She led us away from the pool to the open field. Lying on the ground waiting for us were long combat staffs. One end of the staff was blue, and the other was red.
“Everyone find a partner. Kaine, you’re with me,” Katherine said as she picked up a staff. I took the one across from her. I thought the red and blue ends were full of soft foam. I frowned when I felt rocks inside. “Your goal here is to hit your opponent as many times as possible and as hard as you can. You want your body to adapt to getting bruised.”
Katherine spun her staff. I felt something hit my ankles and I fell backward. My head smashed into the grass. “Ow.” I groaned as my head spun. I got back up and gripped my staff tightly, trying to prepare for another attack. A fat raindrop splattered against my forehead, then another and another.
“Begin.”
I heard the others yell with excitement and charge to attack their partner. The sound of the rock filled sacks smacking into bodies was deafening. I gulped and turned back to Katherine. She didn’t bother taking a fighting stance.
“How am I supposed to hit you?” I asked.
“You’re not.”
She blurred. I felt the end of her staff whack the back of my head. I tripped over my feet as I struggled to stay upright. The back of my head throbbed. The flesh was already tender from falling; now it hurt even more. I couldn’t see her move; I could only wait to get struck. I doubled over as she hit my stomach.
“Ow! Okay! Okay! You got me!” I said, rubbing my stomach.
“I hope you don’t do that in a fight.”
She struck my knee. A sharp pain flared up my leg. I shouted and gripped my knee. She hit the back of my head again. I growled with anger; I could feel nasty welts covering my body.
I spoke through my teeth. “Isn’t there a better way to do this?”
“No, not really.”
Lightning flickered overhead. Suddenly, the world looked like a nightclub with flashing strobe lights. The thunder rolled and shook the ground.
I watched Katherine encircle me. My hands were trembling with fear. She was a billion times faster than me and stronger. I never thought that miraculous power would turn on me.
“How about you move as slow as me?” I said. “That’s fair.�
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She smiled malevolently. “If you think that will make this fair, fine.”
“You don’t have to hit so hard either…”
“An enemy won’t pull their punches,” she said as she lunged towards me. I threw my body aside to try and dodge the attack. The blue end of her staff smacked my ear. For a moment, the world went silent, and all I could hear was a ringing noise. “You should at least try to hit me.”
I grunted. “I am trying!” I charged towards her, swinging my staff in a wide arc. With no trouble, she deflected it and jabbed me in the chest. I fell back. The rain soaked the ground, and the dirt had turned to mud.
I got up and tried to wipe the sludge off of me. Katherine didn’t wait; she swatted my arm. I cried out and nursed my arm. I didn’t know if the staff was better or worse than if she were using her fists; either way, it was painful. I felt like the thunder itself hit me.
Katherine’s expression hardened. I wasn’t her student or her friend anymore; I was her enemy. She went after me without sympathy. I did my best to block her, but she may as well have been fighting a pumpkin. She would strike me down to the ground again and again. Stupidly, I kept getting up.
At last, I didn’t have the strength to lift my staff. I had no energy to try to move out of the way, either. She hit my stomach so hard; blood exploded into my mouth. I tried to shout, but only a bone-chilling, gurgling sound came out. I flopped onto the mud as she continued to batter me.
I gasped in shock as the pain hit me in wave after wave. I tried to curl up into a ball. My body turned into putty, and she was an angry artist pounding me into any lumpy shape she wanted. I’m sure I was crying, but my tears were lost in the rain spraying my face.
Katherine grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm back behind me. Her other hand put pressure on my elbow. “No! No! Please!” I cried.
CRACK! A bomb of agony exploded in my arm and rippled all the way up to my brain. Once it reached my mind, it was so overwhelming I blacked out.
I was afraid to wake up. I knew what was waiting for me. The second I opened my eyes, a horrific throbbing welcomed me all over my body. I wanted to shout, but only a stressed gust of breath escaped my lungs.
I was back in my room, on the bed. The late afternoon storm had lasted long into the night, but now it was fading. The thunder was far off. The rain came in little drops that streaked across the window. The aroma of dinner lingered in the air, but the house was quiet. The others were probably asleep. I looked down and saw my arm was in a cast.
I tried to sit up. The pain that hit me felt like I was hugging a thorny bush. I flopped back onto my pillow, hissing.
“Mmmph.” Surprised that someone else was in the room, I tried to see who it was.
Curled up in a chair beside my bed was Katherine. She was fast asleep with a handmade quilt thrown over her. The deeper into sleep she fell, the more her foot tried to slip off of the chair. On the third slip, she jolted and woke up. She rubbed the exhaustion away from her eyes and noticed I was awake.
“Hey,” she said, flashing a wide relieved smile. The indifferent killer that had smashed my body to bits was nowhere to be seen. I was so glad to have the regular Katherine back.
I shut my eyes. The pain was ripping through me. I couldn’t grip the bed or groan because that hurt too. “Hi.” I breathed out.
“I know you must feel rotten,” she said.
“I feel like I narrowly escaped with my life.”
“Well, in a sense…you did.”
“Thanks for not killing me then.”
“I’m only tough because I care,” she said. “The harder I hit you, the better prepared you’ll be.” She held up a glass of lemonade for me. Thankfully, there was a straw. It went down chilly and smooth.
“Ah, I never thought lemonade could taste so good,” I said. She stuck a thermometer under my tongue.
“Your body is responding well. You’re a hundred and five,” she said. “You’ll rest for tonight and heal. Tomorrow, you should be set to get back out there.” I was not thrilled to hear I only had one night to recover.
“Will you stay with me?” I asked. “Since we can’t do our usual nightly training?” She looked at the door uncomfortably. I could tell she was going to find an excuse to say no. “Please? You did this to me; it’s only fair you nurse me back to health.” She laughed.
“I suppose that’s true,” she said.
“We could watch a movie.” I tried to smile, but my face was too swollen. I felt a twinge of fear. I must look terrible. Katherine didn’t seem repulsed—maybe because she felt too guilty. “What do you like?”
“You don’t want to watch my movies,” she said.
“C’mon, I’m curious.”
“Okay…but don’t say I didn’t give you a choice.”
It turned out that her favorite movies were musicals. I thought they were outrageously cheesy, but I liked watching them with her. She chewed her thumb and tried not to hum along to the songs. She watched me nervously from the corner of her eye.
During the more romantic parts, she was so caught up in them she didn’t realize she was gripping my hand. I stroked it and memorized every sensation her skin gave me. When she realized our hands were touching, she let go rapidly. Five minutes passed, and her hand slowly crept back into mine. This time I felt like she’d done it intentionally.
I don’t know when I had passed out again. The next time I woke up, it was early in the morning. The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon. The darkness of the night had yet to lift fully.
I searched the room and found Katherine had given up trying to sleep on the chair. She was on the bed beside me, her hand still grasping mine. As if sensing my eyes on her, she woke up and bolted out of bed. She ran her hands over her wrinkled shirt.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get on the bed,” she said.
“It’s okay. I’m sure the chair wasn’t exactly comfortable.”
“I have to go before the others wake up.” She dashed out of the room.
Once she was gone, I tried to get up. It hurt a lot, but my bruises felt like they’d had three days to heal instead of one night. Unfortunately, my broken arm hadn’t made any improvements. I was filled with dread and wondered what on earth Katherine was going to make me do with it.
I found my mask on the table. Somehow it had been washed. I pulled it on and went down the hall. I moved slowly to test how mobile I could be without hurting.
“Wow, he’s still alive!” Spaz said as I came into the living room. Astonishment replaced the team’s drowsiness. “Dude, I’ve never seen the commander beat anyone like that before!”
“Definitely thought you’d be dead,” Kavi said.
“Uh, no, thankfully. I’m still here,” I said.
“You must really want to be a ninja,” Spaz said. “What, did your parents die or something and you swore to be a hero?”
“No,” I said and sat down. “Was it really that bad?”
“Yeah!” everyone said in unison.
“You were choking on your own blood while lying in a pool of it,” Wolf said.
“The commander was worried you might’ve had too much internal bleeding,” Lily said. “She carried you inside. After that, we didn’t see or hear a word from you guys. Hot Stuff tried to see what was going on, but the commander shouted at her to go away. She was so upset that she might’ve gone too far.”
“I guess I was kind of out of it,” I said.
“Food’s ready,” Hot Stuff announced. She’d made rice balls and spring rolls. “Good to see you’re alright,” she said as she filled my plate.
When everyone finished eating, we gathered in the gym. The weight stations were waiting for us. Hot Stuff seemed to be the one giving us orders today. Katherine stood off in the corner, watching us yet not really watching us. Her mind was somewhere else.
“I know it hurts, but if you lift with your broken arm too, you’ll force it to heal faster,” Hot Stuff said. I gave her a begging look
. She shook her head sadly. “You can do it.”
I did what she wanted me to. It did not feel like it was helping my arm. It felt like I was making it worse. Still, Hot Stuff was less demanding than Katherine. She let me do my exercises with a heavy sack rather than try to heave the dumbbells around.
After two hours, Hot Stuff led us outside. I swung my good arm backward, trying to sooth the aching muscles. I kept my broken arm close to me; I wasn’t allowed to have a sling for it. I kept trying to look back as casually as I could. Katherine was bringing up the rear. Her arms were folded over in front of her as she stared at the grass. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but there never seemed to be an appropriate time.
We hit the pool again. Instead of rescuing the dummies from the deep end, we had to swim laps lugging them behind us. I almost drowned trying to do it with one arm.
Katherine could no longer watch from afar as we got to the combat staff exercise again. She dragged her staff across the ground as she came towards me. I held mine up in an attempt to block her. It turned out that I didn’t need to bother; she barely tapped me. I was able to land a hit on her, but only because she stood there staring into space.
“What’s wrong? This is your favorite part of the day; you get to hit me, remember?” I said and offered a wide-open shot at my chest. She didn’t move. I grabbed her arm and tried to get her to hit me.
She dropped the staff. “I can’t do this.”
“But what about making sure I—?”
She started walking away. The whole team stopped and watched her disappear into the woods. Even Hot Stuff wasn’t sure what to do for a second.
“Well, gang, looks like the commander’s a bit tired. Why don’t we cut today short?” Hot Stuff said.
“Yes!” The others cheered. They threw their staffs onto the ground and ran towards the house. Hot Stuff rubbed the back of her head as she watched the trees.
“Shouldn’t you go after her?” I asked.
“I dunno, mate. Never seen her like this before,” she said. “Think she needs some time alone.” She started gathering the staffs. I helped her carry a couple.