Empyreal

by Helsel, Spencer

  She explained everything. They took a stroll through the trees to the baseball fields while Dani told him what happened at Ricky’s. He didn’t pressure her for more info or say empty platitudes. He listened, one arm around her shoulders for comfort.

  Somehow she got through the story without crying. They ended up against one of the fences to the baseball diamonds. Once she finished, Nathaniel pensively thought for a moment about what to say.

  Finally, “You know what this means, right?”

  She sniffed. “What’s that?”

  “I can never say a Your-MomJoke again.” He shook his head. “It’s a

  travesty.” Dani barked out a laugh and covered her mouth. That was the last thing she expected, and because of that, it was the best thing. “You’re such a punk, Nate.”

  “You want me to be serious?”

  “Hell no.” She wiped her red cheeks. “I could use a little humor.” “I got that in spades, babe.”

  Dani rolled her eyes. Nathaniel knew how to be funny at just the right time. If anyone else tried to joke like that with her, she would have hit them.

  “So what do I do?” “Well, I was thinking we watch the eclipse.” He checked his wat ch and then the sky. “It should start soon.”

  The Rec Center had mostly cleared out, with a few stragglers moving to open ground to see the sky. Nathaniel and Dani did the same. He handed her a pair of homemade cardboard with pinholes in the middle.

  It was still pretty bright out, but as they watched the moon—now nothing more than a dark circle—it began to cover the orange ball of the sun. She slipped on the glasses with the two pinholes so she could stare directly at the eclipse.

  “You know,” Nathaniel mentioned, “they used to say that an eclipse was an omen. They saw it as the heavens aligning.”

  “Uh-huh. And I’m sure that you could tell me just what kind of eclipse this is going to be.” The moon was now almost over the sun.

  “A total eclipse.”

  She giggled at her own private joke. “Of the heart?”

  “No, the sun dummy.”

  “Let me guess: it’s called a total eclipse because it’s totally going to cover the sun?”

  “Wow, you’re so smart.”

  “Shut your cakehole.”

  The moon fell into place. As it covered the sun, a ring of light poured outward from behind it. Dani had to admit: it was impressive. She even felt moved by the sight. She felt different. She was watching the heavens align.

  The sky darkened, and soft, flare-like beams danced from behind the moon like a heavenly light show. All they needed was music.

  “Cool.” She commented.

  “Cool?” Nathaniel chuckled. “Total eclipses are rare. This is epic!”

  “Way to make it geeky, Nate.”

  The eclipse lasted for a few minutes before the moon shifted and the light poured out the other side. Sunlight returned. Day became bright again. Dani winced, lowering her gaze, taking off the glasses and blinking. Even a little bit of sun for too long was hard on the eyes.

  “So, epic?” Nathaniel asked, grinning.

  “Epic.” She agreed.

  At least one of them had a reason to smile today.

  ______________________

  “I’m not sure what I’m going to do.” Dani mused, swinging gently on the swing. The sun dipped below the horizon, bathing the remaining sky with oranges, blues and purples. The lights of L.A. glittered in the distance. “Where am I supposed to go? I don’t have anyone.”

  “You have me.” He reminded her, swinging beside her.

  “You live in a foster home, Nathaniel.” He frowned for a second. If she didn’t know him so well, she wouldn’t have seen it. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “No, you’re right.” He sighed. “My foster mom would never let me bring anyone to the house. If I did, she’d call the cops. But maybe there’s a place we can find for you tonight. A lot of the foster kids talk about halfway houses and shelters for runaways.”

  She couldn’t believe those were her only two options: halfway house or a shelter. Or she could sleep on the streets. The third option was not any better than the first two.

  She put her face in her hands. How could this be happening?

  “We’ll figure it out.” He assured her.

  They sat for a little while longer, not really saying anything. She checked her watch. It was past seven thirty. Normally, she’d worry about getting home. Ricky didn’t like her coming in late. Now, well…

  She stared across the park. There were a few people still out. Los Angeles was alive with light, but most of Sun Valley had gone home.

  There was one group cutting across the Rec Center’s lawn from Cantara Street to Lorne; three of them, all huddled together. Silent. None of them spoke, which was odd, but not because silence was odd on its own. It was the way they walked. They weren’t just ambling around; out for a good time after dark. They moved like a pack of animals in formation. They moved with a purpose.

  Then she smelled something. She knew that smell. Where did she remember it from?

  “Nathaniel, how about we get out of here?” she suggested, grabbing her bag.

  “Where?”

  “Anywhere.”

  The group was almost to them. She recognized them. They were the same vagrants from earlier. And she could see their eyes. They were looking right at them. They came towards them through the shadows.

  “Come on, let’s go.”

  She and Nathaniel looped through the playground to Lorne Street. They could cross over and disappear between the buildings. At least, Dani hoped.

  The homeless men picked up the pace at a lopping jog.

  “Dani, what’s going on?”

  “Just keep walking.” She told him, moving faster, but trying not to run.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Just go.”

  They crossed the open grass towards the street. But just as they got clear of the playground, two figures emerged from behind some cars. She could see that they, too, had the same soiled, disheveled appearance as the three behind them. And, like the other three, they didn’t bother looking anywhere else but at them.

  She and Nathaniel halted.

  Behind them, the three homeless drifters spread out, blocking any chance of going back. And the two in front blocked the way across the street.

  They were surrounded.

  Chapter Four “Dani ? Who are they?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She could hear something behind her. The three beggars that chased

  them were sniffing, just like before.

  “If we have to run,” she told Nathaniel, “we try to run past the two in

  front of us.”

  “Why would we run?”

  “Just run if I tell you.” She didn’t know why, but every nerve in her

  body told her to bolt.

  “It’s just a couple of bums. Half the time they’re looking for money.”

  He stepped forward. “We don’t have any money. Okay? We’re just trying to

  get home.”

  More sniffing; deeper, louder.

  Their silence unnerved him. “Just back off. Get out of our way.” The heavy breathing kept up, their heads turning from Nathaniel to

  Dani and back. What did they want? They were so loud. So… animalistic. Nathaniel attempted to intimidate them. “We’ll call the cops.” And then, all at once, they inhaled together; one long, loud drag.

  Their bodies tensed, heads back, breathing in. And then they stopped. Nathaniel glanced at Dani, shrugging.

  Someone tackled Dani from behind, throwing her face first into the

  dirt. She screamed. The awful stench of the homeless man filled her nostrils

  as he shoved her to the ground. He screamed, something more animal than

  human. One hand seized her shoulder and another her hair, pinning her

  down so hard it hurt. She tried to push him off,
but he was too strong. Nathaniel took his book in both hands and swung, beating him

  across the face. But it didn’t work. Another vagrant leapt forward and

  tackled him, too.

  He leapt almost five or six feet in a single lunge to do it. Dani threw her elbow back and connected with the eye socket of the

  man on top of her. It was desperate, but it worked. He shrieked in pain, but

  his voice wasn’t that of a man. The scream sounded like it belonged to some

  kind of creature.

  She rolled onto her back, shimmying away on hands and feet. The

  filthy vagrant, tall and gangly as if he hadn’t eaten in months, scrambled up

  to his feet. His lips pulled back and he hissed.

  Dani’s heart leapt into her throat. His teeth weren’t normal. They

  were all canines. Like a shark, each one was a stout, jagged point. And as she watched, the teeth stretched from his gums, elongating like a row of switchblades. The vagrant’s jaws stretched a way they shouldn’t like a mouth full of daggers. His hiss turned into a rumbling growl and he

  scrambled forward on all fours.

  Dani rolled as he launched at her. He shot past. She came up onto

  her feet, but heard one coming at her from behind. She rolled again and a

  wave of stench and a howling street beggar charged past.

  Her heart pounded in her chest. Nathaniel screamed. One of the

  men—or whatever these things were—picked him up and pinned him by the

  throat to a lightpost as if he weighed nothing.

  “Nathaniel!”

  Arms wrapped around her and lifted her off her feet; the first drifter

  again. Hot, foul breath huffed on the back of her neck. When she turned

  over her shoulder, she came face to face with him—with it. Its eyes were

  milky white, completely empty of anything resembling human. It made a

  sound like a laugh, but no human voice sounded like that. Its mouth opened

  impossibly wide, jaw unhinging, and reared back to tear into her. And now

  instead of one row, there were two rows of long, jagged teeth. She screamed.

  Then something happened. One moment, the arms of the putrid

  man clenched around her body. The next, he was gone. The top of his head

  separating from the rest. He dissolved into a cloud of dust. His arms

  evaporated. Dani dropped to the ground in a shower of grey. She coughed,

  inhaling something awful and chalky. She almost vomited, but she was free. Then she heard a scream. It was one of those things. The creatureman stormed through the ash towards her. Then abruptly, the scream

  stopped and it disappeared, too.

  The man holding up Nathaniel turned towards her, hissing. Dani

  struggled back up and ran at him. She grabbed the vagrant’s arm, trying to

  pry him off of her friend. Nathaniel choked and struggled and flailed his

  legs.

  “Get off him!” she screamed. “Get off him!”

  He shoved her back. She tried again. This time she grabbed his wrist

  and pulled. Her hands felt hot. She thought she could hear hissing when she

  touched his skin. He howled in pain and his grip loosened.

  Then he hit her with a backhand.

  Dani saw stars. The ground rolled up at her as she fell hard into it.

  The vagrant-thing, whatever it was, opened its jaws to sink his knife-like

  teeth into Nathaniel’s throat.

  But in the split second it took, something stopped him. She almost didn’t see it. It happened in a fraction of a moment.

  Someone melted out of the shadows, a streak of silver flashing in the

  overhead light. Nathaniel dropped. The vagrant’s arm disappeared,

  disintegrating below the elbow. He fell to his feet, inhaling gratefully.

  Whatever or whoever freed Nathaniel moved fluidly through the dark,

  spinning with another silver flash, slicing across the open air. Then the

  vagrant’s head went missing. His body disappeared in a cloud of thick greyblack dust that cascaded to the ground. Then the figure vanished. “Nathaniel!” Dani ran to him. “Are you okay?”

  He sputtered, clutching his throat, croaking, “What happened?” Around them the homeless creatures screamed. There were still two

  of them. They howled, talking in a mixture of hisses and grunts as they

  circled them.

  “Come on!” she grabbed his arm and pulled him up. “Run!” Bag over her shoulder, Nathaniel’s book long since left behind, the

  two of them took off. Instead of running for the Rec Center, or towards the

  buildings across the street, or even trying to cross Lorne like they originally

  planned, Dani and Nathaniel bolted behind the Center. They ran at a dead

  sprint, leaping over a table. Behind the Center, the floodlights were still on

  at the baseball fields. They sprinted towards them.

  They could hear inhuman snarls behind them, but neither dared

  look back.

  “Who the hell are those guys?” Nathaniel cried.

  “You mean what are they!” Dani shot back, legs flying. She reached the fence for the first baseball diamond, throwing open

  a gate and shooting through with Nathaniel close on her heels. He yanked

  the door closed, flipped the lock and the two of them ran again. The

  floodlights were so bright they could barely see. She squinted, for the first

  time chancing a look back as they crossed.

  And she wished she hadn’t.

  One of the vagrants dashed from the shadows on the other side of

  the fence. For a moment, she hoped the boundary would slow him down.

  Instead, he leapt onto it and with only a few pulls, he was over. The burly

  man with a beard of molted hair didn’t look at all like he could move fast,

  but he climbed over and leapt from the top. He—no, it—launched itself

  across the open, landing on its hands and feet an impossible distance from

  the fence. Then, like some kind of mutant dog, it scampered after them on

  all fours.

  Nathaniel cursed. “Run faster!”

  “I am!”

  The two of them cut across from the field into the open park, but

  with nothing to put between them, there was no way they’d make it to the

  next cross street. Behind them, the large drifter huffed like an animal, its

  jaws oozing with saliva as it scuttled; bones shifting in ways they shouldn’t.

  The nightmare from hell was gaining on them.

  Nathaniel stopped. He skidded to a halt, turned and sprinted back

  towards the creature.

  “Nathaniel! What are you doing?”

  “Run!” he told her. “Run Dani! Get out of here!”

  “Nathaniel! No!”

  The pair of them charged at one another. Dani couldn’t keep going;

  not if Nathaniel risked his life for her. She turned and ran after him. No way

  was he going to die for her.

  “Nathaniel!” She screamed, but it was too late. They were less than

  half a football field apart. The thing on all fours picked up speed, eager to

  run Nathaniel down. Even if Nathaniel changed his mind now, the vagrant

  would be all over him. “Nathaniel!”

  Just as the beast closed to only a few dozen feet, it leapt into the air.

  Vaulting off the ground, arms outstretched, Dani could see long, blade-like

  claws extended from the tips of its fingers. It aimed directly for Nathaniel;

  descending for the kill.

  And then he appeared. As if materializing between them, someone

  was suddenly there. He stood calmly in the path of the monster; the silvery, />
  long object in both hands. She couldn’t see his face because he wore a hood

  over his head, but he moved with near-impossible speed. His arms came up,

  the silver object swung and in one motion he cut the homeless mancreature apart.

  The vagrant exploded into a shower of grey dust. The filthy cascade

  washed over Nathaniel and his protector, the force of it spreading into a

  cloud that Dani ran headlong into. Then she ran into Nathaniel, both of

  them choking on the ashy filth.

  It took a few seconds before the smoke cleared and revealed their

  rescuer. Dani blinked away ash. Not only did he have a hood up, but what

  he held wasn’t silver and wasn’t just an object. It was straight steel sword,

  almost four or five feet long, gripped between his two hands. The blade was

  almost as long as he was tall, widening at the bottom near the hilt. The

  surface glinted with an unnatural sheen in places not covered in tar-like

  ooze and ash. He held it loosely, looking for other threats before turning

  towards them.

  That’s when he—because in fact it was a he—cast back his hood. “Are

  you alright?”

  He was a few years older than them and only a few inches taller than

  Dani; mid-five-foot. His hair was untamed, bent about his ears in little

  cherub-like curls the color of dark chocolate. His clean-shaven face and eyes

  paired with his locks; light-brown irises the color of honey and tan skin.

  They narrowed with concern. His face was serious, as if what he’d just done

  wasn’t enough to drive home that this wasn’t a social call.

  “I—I’m fine.” She stammered.

  He seemed to forget her, shifting his eyes to her friend. “Nathaniel?

  Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. I mean, I’m fine too.” Nathaniel babbled.

  He re-sheathed the massive sword—Dani was still having trouble

  wrapping her head around that thing—into a scabbard that hung from a

  two-tonged strap connected to a belt. For the first time she noticed that he

  wasn’t wearing a hoodie or a jacket. Whatever it was, it didn’t even look to

  be from this century. His clothes were composed of some kind of tunic top,

  or other loose-fitted cloth with a straight collar and ties across his chest.

  The material looked heavy and woven, but shone in the dim light. He wore a