Blood and Light

by Rue Volley

  We ran through the woods so quickly, I heard animals run away as we darted through, but it sounded like a faint echo. I stopped and looked at the ground. The trail was split into two. I reached down and pressed my hand into the dirt and closed my eyes.

  “You are much better at tracking then I am, but don't tell her,” Kai said as he leaned down to me.

  373

  “You just need to focus, act like it's a video game...that should help,” I said as I stood up.

  “Huh...never thought about that,” he said. He leaned down and pressed his hand against the ground. He closed his eyes and I heard his heart beat slow down. He stood up and grinned. “I know which way she went,” he whispered.

  “See, you can do it Kai, you just have to focus.”

  He flashed away from me and I reached out for a second. I sighed. I can't teach him to be patient, Sam will probably kick his butt. I opened my mouth and tasted iron on my tongue. I swallowed and my stomach growled. I looked down and rubbed it. “Shut up,” I whispered.

  I suddenly felt a vibration to my right and I crouched down, quietly pulling my blades from the holsters on my back. I looked around and waited. I thought for sure that Josh would pop out and try to ambush me. The feeling faded though and I stood up, slowly looking all around me. I looked at the black color swirling in the air and flashed in that direction.

  I came to a hill and laid down on my stomach, I crawled up to the edge and peeked over. Josh and Sam were standing there, talking to each other. I didn't think that it was a very good plan to hang out together, their chances of winning would increase if they split up. Suddenly Sam flashed away from him and Josh stood there with his back to me. I looked down and bit my lip.

  “I can feel you, Rue,” he said as he looked around him.

  I pushed back and rolled on my back. I slowed my breathing down.

  “Sounds like you calmed down,” he yelled out.

  I sighed. He knew I was here, but I found him right...? Does it count that he knows that I am here...? No, I win… I tracked him down, not the other way around.

  “I let you find me,” Josh said.

  I pushed myself up, and I stood at the top of the over hang with my blades in my hand.

  “You did not,” I said.

  He turned and looked up at me. “Yea, I did...sorry.”

  I jumped down into a crouched position with my blades by my side. I looked up at him and he grinned.

  “What, you treat Sam like this?” I asked him.

  He laughed. “You know Sam, you think she's easy like that. Geezus, she's like a boy.”

  “Well I don't know what your game is, but I found you and now we fight,” I said as I gripped my blades.

  “Oh really?” he asked me as he tilted his head.

  He flashed away from me, through the trees.

  ******

  I gripped my blades and grumbled. He was toying with me now. I'm gonna knock him out. I pressed my hand against the ground and his trail opened to me.

  I flashed forward and I scanned the trees and everything around me. All of a 374

  sudden the trail stopped, and I skidded to a stop. I looked up and rolled out of the way as he dropped down from the tree above me. I pushed myself up and left one leg straight out to my side, as I raised my head to look at him.

  He flashed towards me and I flipped my blade in my hand and raised up, hitting him in the side as he passed me by. He groaned and skidded to a stop behind me and I spun around. He rubbed his ribs.

  “God, I wish that you would stop doing that,” he said.

  “I could have hit you in the, you knows,” I said as I looked down his body.

  He laughed. “The „you knows"…I like that.”

  I smiled and flashed towards him, he twisted his body and I missed him, I almost ran into a tree. I stopped and jerked my head, to move the hair out of my face. He stood there and turned his blades sideways in his hands.

  I looked at him and grinned. “You ready to do this for real,” I said to him.

  He looked me up and down and grinned. “I'm ready to do all kinds of stuff with you.”

  “Shut up,” I said as I came at him.

  He stood his ground and our blades hit, light flashed off of them and my heart started to beat harder in my chest. We stood there, face to face, with blades glowing.

  He leaned towards me. “You are getting me hot,” he whispered.

  I yelled out and slid my blades downward, the metal made a slicing sound as I went down, I ran under him...between his legs and then kicked him in the butt ,as I kicked my leg out behind me. He stumbled forward and turned around biting his lip.

  I stood up and laughed at him. “Smooth,” I said.

  He flipped his blades into the ground, and they hummed like a tuning fork as they swayed back and forth. He closed his eyes and held his hands out, palms up. I watched as black started to swirl around his blades, it went upward, almost like a slow motion tornado. He opened his eyes and his pupils looked black as night. I watched in wonder. I need to know that trick. He placed his hands out over both of his blades as they shot out of the ground, and into his hands. A trace of black mist trailed behind and started to roll around his feet.

  “Now I am centered,” he said to me.

  I gripped my blades tightly in my hands, I suddenly got the feeling that I had not seen him battle for real yet, although I knew this was for sport. He took a stance with me that I had seen from him before. His heartbeat slowed, his breathing slowed, and the glow on his blades pulsated with each breath that he took.

  “Okay, I need to know how to do that,” I said as I relaxed my hands. He grinned at me.

  “I told you that it is all in how you focus. The blades are an extension of you, they feel as you do… If you are not focused ...they will not serve you.”

  I looked down at my blades and then I threw them at the ground, they laid there on their sides. I looked up at him and he walked towards me.

  “Pick them up,” he said kinda forceful.

  375

  I leaned down and saw that his feet were next to me. I stood up and felt a humming in my body. I think I blushed but I couldn't tell. He walked behind me and I heard his blades slide into the holsters on his back. He stepped up to me and I felt the heat coming off of him. He reached around me from behind and put his hands on mine. I looked down at the blades and he raised my hands just slightly and flipped them towards the ground. I let go and both of my blades stuck out of the ground with that tuning fork hum coming from them, like his had.

  He held onto my hands and rubbed his thumbs across my palms, I took a breath, a little staggered...I didn't mean too. I felt his breath on the back of my neck. He held my hands out at my sides and placed them palm up.

  “Close your eyes,” he said calmly. I closed them.

  “I want you to feel the metal, cold and hard… Listen to the song they are singing to you...it's only for you.”

  I slowed my breathing and focused on the metal, and it's song. My heart slowed, I could see color swirling behind my eye lids...blue, with traces of silver.

  He let go of my hands and backed away from me.

  “Now look, Rue.”

  I opened my eyes and saw blue swirls coming out of the ground around my blades, it snaked upward. I opened my mouth and breathed it in, it tasted like honey in my mouth.

  “Now place your hands over them and call them to you. You don't have to say it out loud, they will hear you.”

  I placed both of my hands out, palm down over my blades and I called to them. They shot upward and I felt them slip into my hands really...for the first time. They felt like they had a heart beat...my heart beat. I held them up and watched the blue swirl on the blades and around my wrists, it felt like a cat rubbing against me while it purred. I grinned as I looked up at Josh, who stood there with no expression on his face.

  “Did I do it right?” I asked.

  “Yes…you did. I shouldn't be surprised that you got it on the firs
t try, you are a quick study,” he said as he leaned down and turned his blades sideways in his hands.

  He came at me in a flash and I instinctively spun around bringing my blades down to my side. His blade struck mine and I felt an adrenaline rush go through me, unlike any I had ever had. My heart fluttered. He flashed to my ear.

  “Feels good doesn't it.” he whispered.

  I nodded as he brought his blades up in a blur and I brought mine up to counter him. I sucked in my breath as the metal clashed together. My body hummed and my breathing staggered.

  “You need to calm down,” he said.

  I lowered my head and closed my eyes, I felt like I had just been kissed. I raised my blades and looked at them. I saw my reflection in the metal and my eyes swirled light blue and white. I lowered it and looked at him.

  “I feel funny,” I said.

  He laughed. “Of course you do...fighting with your blades is a seductive experience.”

  376

  I ran at him in a flash and every move he made my blades came down and hit his. I started to gasp after the sixth hit and I stopped. I staggered back from him and gripped my blades. I reached up and wiped sweat from my forehead. He came at me and I countered his every move, with each hit I started to make noises and he stopped. I stood there panting and my eyes felt glossy. I didn't know what I was feeling, but I loved it. He grinned.

  “I think you are enjoying this too much,” he said.

  I flashed at him and suddenly I felt a tremor in my body, I fell to my knees and gasped. I threw my head back and then fell to the ground.

  “Oh my god!” I yelled out.

  He ran to me and knelt down. I kept my head down and tried to breath. I don't know what just happened, but it was the best feeling in the entire world.

  Well, I kinda knew. I kept my head down, realizing that the embarrassment was coming. I looked up at him, my face flush.

  “I think that I just…” I whispered.

  “Holy shit,” he said as he touched my back.

  I stood up with a stagger and backed away from him.

  “Don't....don't touch me right now,” I said.

  “Listen Rue, it's okay, I should of warned you to control yourself. I didn't think that you would, ya know, have an orgas…”

  I interrupted him, I had to, “Shut up Josh.”

  I slid my blades into the holsters on my back and started to walk away from him. My head felt light, I took a step and almost stumbled over a rock that I didn't see on the ground.

  He cleared his throat. “Rue…”

  I held up my hand behind me and pointed at him. “Don't say a word…I'm going back home.”

  He flashed up beside me and I picked up my pace. I didn't want to talk to him right now, I was mortified. The last thing I wanted was for him to be able to say that he made me...you know, by just play fighting with me... Awesome, just fantastic.

  “You can hit me if you want,” he said.

  “I just want to go home and take a shower.” I could see him grin beside me.

  “Not because of you,” I added, as I kept walking. Truth was, I would flash...but right now I would probably hit a tree. That would just add insult to injury.

  “Okay, listen...we won't ever talk about it…I swear,” he said.

  I stopped walking and looked at him. “No, we won't…because there is nothing to talk about.”

  “Uh huh,” he said.

  “I mean it...I didn't have anything, I just got dizzy,” I said, trying to tell a convincing lie.

  “Okay, you got dizzy…got it,” he said as he kept up with me.

  “That's why I said „Oh god". I thought that I was going to pass out.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  I looked at him and he had a smile on his face. It disappeared quickly as he tried to look serious.

  377

  He cleared his throat. “Food was good tonight,” he said.

  I sighed and walked forward.

  “Where is everyone?” I asked.

  He stopped and looked around. “I don't know... I don't feel them, do you?” he asked me.

  I stopped and tried to focus, but everything was a mess in my head.

  “I can't focus,” I said.

  “Yea, I've had girls tell me that before,” he muttered.

  “What...?” I said as I stopped, and crossed my arms.

  He stood there and held his hand up. “Nothing…I didn't say anything,” he said.

  I squinted my eyes and knelt down. I pressed my hand against the ground and spread my fingers out. I couldn't feel anything strong, but then a familiar vibration ran up my hand. It was Johnathan.

  “Oh shit,” I muttered.

  “What...what is it?” he asked as he knelt down next to me.

  “It's Johnathan...he's this way,” I said as I pointed into the woods.

  “Oh...him. He's probably writing in his journal...about how much he is feeling right now,” Josh said with thick sarcasm.

  “Shut up…I don't even think he has a journal,” I replied.

  “Oh, I would bet money he does,” Josh said as he stood up.

  “Listen, I need to talk to him Josh, I can't just let it go.”

  “Uh huh.” Josh ran his hand through his hair. “Wish that you would,” he added.

  I stood there and tilted my head, as I tried to read his face. I couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

  He looked up at me. “Listen, go talk to him before he hangs himself in a tree.”

  I sighed. “Yea...I need to talk to him, I do.”

  Suddenly Theodore flashed up to us. He looked at Josh and then to me.

  His expression changed as he saw the swirling color on my skin. I hadn't noticed that I was still glowing, I was too mad.

  “Joshua Barrington!” he said as he raised his hands.

  I looked down at my hands and saw that orange was swirling in the bright blue in my skin.

  Josh looked at me and then back to him.

  “No...no..no, I did not, we were fighting Theodore…! I taught her how to draw energy into the blades and she got carried away!” Josh said half yelling.

  I hit him and he stumbled. “Shut up Josh!” I yelled at him.

  Theodore laughed. “Oh my, well then, Rue…you need to learn how to control the feelings that the blade brings.” He winked at me. “Can be quite the experience the first time.”

  “Oh my god,” I muttered. I held up my hands and looked back to him. “So, that's what the color orange is?”

  Josh laughed. “Yea, it's umm, you know, when you get excited…in that way.”

  “Awesome!” I said as I started to walk. “So, you knew Josh...? That's just perfect... This whole color thing is a pain in my ass.”

  “Well, it makes dating a lot easier,” he said.

  378

  I stopped and yelled out as I clinched my fists at my sides. I didn't look back, I didn't have too. I was sure that Josh was standing there...with a grin that would just make me sick, so I walked a couple of steps and then flashed forward.

  ******

  Johnathan was sitting on the edge of a rock, over looking the water. He had stones in his hand, that he kept skipping across the surface. He went to throw another one when he stopped and looked behind him. He felt something, but it seemed like it may be an animal. He turned back around and he felt it again, so he pushed himself up and looked into the trees. He saw a flash and he steadied himself. It felt familiar, but made him a little uneasy.

  Suddenly a flash came up behind him and two arms wrapped around his waist. He looked down and grabbed the hands, he turned and it was Rue. He smiled, but she didn't smile back. She pulled out a blade and sliced through the air at him and he rolled backward away from her. He pulled his blades and turned them in his hands.

  “Hello Johnathan,” Rue said.

  “You are not Rue,” Johnathan said as he stood up straight. His heart pounding in his chest.

  Rue shook her head and the vision started to change
.

  “Elin?” Johnathan asked, as he stared at her in disbelief.

  “Miss me?” Elin asked as she flashed toward him bringing her blade down, she sliced through his upper arm and he cried out.

  “I killed you,” he muttered, as he pressed against the cut on his arm.

  “You didn't do a good enough job...as usual. You kill like you fuck, you just don't get the job done... It's just disappointing,” Elin said as she started to walk back and forth.

  “I never did anything with you, Elin...you disgust me,” Johnathan said as he staggered. His vision started to blur.

  “Oh, what's wrong Johnathan, feeling a little under the weather?” Elin asked him as she leaned forward.

  Johnathan pulled his blade and tried to lift it, but it felt heavy in his hand. He stumbled and almost fell down.

  Elin giggled. “You have been poisoned by the blade, you poor baby.”

  “You crazy bitch,” Johnathan said as he fell down. He tried to push himself up, but his legs were numb.

  Elin flashed up to him and leaned down in his face. “I am going to send you to a place where you will do what I say, when I say it... And for your little girlfriend, well...she will be attended to.” Elin stood up just as Johnathan tried to swipe his blade at her.

  “You leave Rue alone. I swear to god, I will kill you again.”

  Elin laughed. “You couldn't even do it right the last time, you idiot!”

  Elin flashed on top of him and pressed down on him. Johnathan struggled under her. She pressed her hips against his and moved. He tried to push her off, but he had no strength to do it. She pulled his hands up over his head and 379

  pressed her lips hard against his. He struggled, but she bit his mouth, he tried to yell, but she shoved her tongue in his mouth. He pushed up and tried to bite her.

  Elin sat up and hit him in the face.

  “I would of enjoyed that, but you want to hurt me don't you?” He tried to push her off and she hit him again.

  “I am tired of playing with you.” Elin reached down and grabbed his cut arm and started to drag him into the woods. He cried out as she jerked on him. She stopped and leaned down, putting a blade in his face.