by C. J. Anaya
Victor pushed me to the floor while simultaneously pulling out a strange looking crossbow.
Where had that thing been hiding?
He aimed for the ceiling and shot with practiced precision before the clicking sound had even finished. The arrow ripped through the ceiling, and a loud, pain-filled screech erupted immediately afterward. A scorched, mega-sized paw with huge claws reached through the hole above us.
Victor scooped me up again, and we were running back the way we’d come.
“All you did was piss it off, you know,” Tie yelled from behind us. “And slowed it down. It won’t be able to track us for a while now.”
Claws.
That thing had claws, and they were nasty looking. I was freaking out.
We were down the hallway, past the broken high school entrance, and across the street before I could blink an eye. I wondered where we were headed next when my house suddenly appeared in the distance. We were traveling so fast. How was it even possible?
“How do you know where I live?” I shouted.
Victor ignored my question and raced toward the front door of my house. He kicked it open with his foot and rushed inside with Tie following right behind us. Tie unceremoniously dropped Angie to the ground and slammed the door shut.
“This is insane,” she yelled. She didn’t even bother to stand up.
“Did you really think I was gonna let you go back there and get yourself killed?” he asked in exasperation.
Angie shot up faster than I thought possible.
“Do you have any idea how long it took me to save up enough money to buy that car?” She placed her hands on her hips and jutted out her chin.
Full battle mode.
“Oh dear,” I mumbled under my breath.
“What was that?” Victor asked.
I looked at him and felt slightly embarrassed. I was still being held in his arms, and my arms were encircling his very broad shoulders. Victor, this up close and personal, was more than a little mind-numbing. I randomly wondered what it’d be like to kiss him, then I shook my head as I tuned back in to the argument between Tie and Angie.
“Yeah, right. Your daddy bought you that car, and I’m sure he can buy you another one.” Tie already looked bored with the conversation.
He’d just managed to tread on very dangerous ground. I knew I needed to intercede before Angie completely lost it.
“You better put me down,” I said to Victor.
He complied somewhat grudgingly. I tried to put myself between Tie and Angie as fast as I could, but my gold stilettos impeded my progress.
“Tie, Angie’s father has been out of the picture for awhile now. She bought her own car.”
He had the decency to look embarrassed.
“Angie, I’m sorry about your car. I really am, but we have a few pressing problems here that need to be dealt with first,” I insisted.
Angie still looked ready to throw a few good punches, but she finally relaxed her stance and gave me a nod, signaling to me she was willing to play nice for now.
“We’ll be safe here,” Victor said in a comforting voice. “I stunned that thing with several thousand volts of electricity. It won’t wake up for at least three hours. Just long enough for us to make our escape.”
“Escape?” I asked.
“Yes, and don’t worry about your home. The nemokata can’t send their fireballs through here.”
“Nekomata? What…?”
“The fireballs can’t penetrate the walls in which living beings dwell,” Victor continued, interrupting my question.
“My car begs to differ,” Angie argued.
“Your car is fine,” Tie said. “Their fire only destroys human flesh. We could go back to the café right now and there’d be absolutely nothing wrong with your car, okay? It was just an illusion.”
I thought about the tree in Mrs. Simmons’ yard.
Mystery solved.
The bickering continued until I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Whoa, wait!” I yelled. “What are nekomata, why are they throwing balls of fire at us, and how in the world do you two even know about them in the first place?” My little outburst seemed to surprise everyone. “Who are you really, because you certainly aren’t high school kids, and you definitely didn’t move here with the intention of staying for any real length of time.”
Tie and Victor looked at each other, communicating in that strange way only guys can.
“Do they know this has happened before?” Angie asked, breaking the silence.
“What do you mean, this has happened before?” Victor gave Angie a scowl, which she ignored as she turned to address Tie.
“When Hope was walking home from the hospital yesterday she thought someone was following her, and then this branch knocked her over and a huge fireball lit up the tree she’d been standing in front of.”
Victor’s angry scowl moved to his cousin.
“You knew about this?”
“I made sure she got home safely.” Tie raised a placating hand. “She hit the ground before the flames came near her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me there’d already been an attack?” Victor looked about ready to explode.
“I didn’t think you were even coming. You made it very clear that you didn’t believe me despite my insistence.”
“Can you blame me?” Victor shouted. “I couldn’t sense her, Tie. She’s standing right here, and I still can’t get a read on her ki or the way it touches the veil.”
“I had it under control, Vicky. Nothing was going to happen to her on my watch.”
“But it isn’t your watch, is it, Tie? It’s mine. She’s my responsibility, and you agreed to that before you were allowed to help us.”
“Someone better tell me what’s going on before I begin screaming at the top of my very operatic lungs,” Angie cried out.
“You were there when I got attacked last night, and you didn’t talk to me, or help me up…or explain what was going on?” I spluttered. I was still reeling from their comments, but my anger at his involvement yesterday took precedence.
“What was I supposed to do? Introduce myself and tell you I was there to find out if you could heal people by connecting with their life force, and oh, by the way, there are other people who aren’t so nice, and they would like to kill you?”
“Heal people? Hope, what on earth is he talking about?” Angie asked.
“I don’t know, Angie.” I tried to sound clueless. “For some reason these two both think I’m some kind of miracle worker.”
“We aren’t the only ones. How do you explain that everyone, good and bad, has managed to zero in on you Ms. Fairmont,” Tie asked, driving his point home.
“You still haven’t told me what nekomata are or who you two are for that matter.” I needed to steer the conversation away from my healing powers.
“We’ll talk about what nekomata are later,” Victor said in a weary voice. “Right now we need some kind of game plan. We need to get Hope out of town without you-know-who being the wiser.”
“Who is you-know-who?” I fairly screamed.
“We’ll need Chinatsu to help us out with that,” Tie said completely ignoring me.
“Our mythology teacher?” Angie asked. “What in the world does she have to do with any of this?”
“I’m not leaving,” I interrupted before anyone could answer Angie’s question. “I don’t know who you people are, and I have no idea what’s going on. Do you really think I’d go anywhere with either one of you?”
“You’re not safe here, Hope,” Victor said.
“I’m not safe because you two are here. None of this started until you two came into town. Am I right?” Their silence only confirmed my suspicions. “Tell me what’s going on right now!”
“There’s really only so much we can tell you. The rest you have to remember on your own.” Victor placed a calming hand on my shoulder.
“She should have remembered all the ugly, sordid detai
ls by now,” Tie said bitingly, “but I think she’s healing too much. She’s been using her powers to heal everyone but herself.”
I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. I didn’t want Angie finding out like this.
“Crazy,” Angie muttered to no one in particular. “I’m surrounded by good looking guys who are absolutely nuts. I don’t suppose either one of you is up for a really long make-out session?”
Angie threw herself on the living room couch and pulled out a nail file from her monstrous purse. I was surprised she still had her purse.
“I’m going to say this one more time, so pay attention,” I said, raising my voice. “I don’t know how to heal people. I don’t have magical powers that allow me to fix injuries, seal cuts, or bring people back from the dead. I don’t even own a broomstick.”
“Well, now you’re just being silly.” Tie gave me a flirtatious wink.
The sarcastic remark forming in my mind never got past my lips. I heard the back door open and slam and then my father’s concerned voice boomed from the kitchen.
“Hope? Angie? Are you here?” He sounded terrified.
“Dad, we’re in here,” I shouted. “You got home fast.” He was also home safe. I felt relieved knowing he hadn’t been attacked by whatever was out there.
My dad hurried down the hallway.
“Someone came into the hospital screaming about a purple PT exploding,” he called out. “You weren’t answering your phones so I came home to see if everything was okay.” He reached the end of the hallway and came into view. When he caught sight of us he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank heavens you guys are all right.”
“No one should have been able to see any kind of damage to the car,” Victor muttered to himself.
My father opened his arms and walked over to me. He seemed a little unsteady on his feet, and he smelled like he’d been sitting by a campfire.
I hurried forward, thinking he’d been injured somehow.
“Hope. No!” Tie screamed just as my father reached behind himself and pulled out the longest, wickedest looking sword I’d ever seen.
He charged at me, yelling something in a language I couldn’t understand and thrust his sword forward aiming for my chest. Everything happened slowly after that. Victor ran toward my father, reaching behind himself and unveiling an incredible looking sword of his own. More steel gleamed on my other side as Tie produced another nasty looking weapon out of thin air.
I randomly wondered where everyone had been hiding their swords.
My brain felt a little fuzzy, and the entire moment took on a surreal almost dream-like quality.
My father intended to kill me. I felt a strange sense of loss knowing my last moments on this earth were so near, and I couldn’t be alone with Tie.
I looked into my father’s eyes as the sharp end of his weapon continued its downward thrust toward my heart. They were cold, black, and empty; completely devoid of any human emotion. In the back of my mind, I was able to acknowledge that the man before me really wasn’t my father, but I couldn’t help feeling betrayed all the same. He wanted to end my life. Destroy me.
I saw a streak of gold coming at me from my left and felt myself being shoved backward as Tie threw himself in front of me. I roughly landed on the floor and watched as my fake father’s sword plunged through Tie’s chest and out his back.
Tie screamed in agony and dropped to his knees trying to pull the sword from his chest. Victor let out a deafening battle cry and sailed through the air with his sword raised high above him. He brought it down swiftly, severing my father’s head from his body where it rolled noisily and came to a stop near the front door.
Then there was silence.
Everyone stayed frozen in their various positions until Tie, with one long, gut-wrenching scream, pulled the gleaming sword from his chest and collapsed the rest of the way to the floor.
Angie and I jumped forward toward his outstretched body, but Victor managed to get there before we did, placing his hands on either side of Tie’s head and closing his eyes.
“I can’t believe this. Your dad tried to kill you…he …he killed Tie,” Angie screamed hysterically. There were tears already streaming down her face. She looked up at Victor and pointed an accusing finger at him. “You killed Dr. Fairmont! I didn’t see it. How did I not seen this coming?”
I grabbed Angie’s shoulders and shook her hard until she was looking at me instead of the gaping hole in Tie’s chest.
“Angie, that man wasn’t my father, okay?” I spoke as calmly as I could. Angie’s eyes were bright with more unshed tears. “I know a lot is happening you don’t understand. I don’t really understand it either, but I need you to get a hold of yourself here. I’ll try to explain what I can as soon as we help Tie.”
One thing I loved about Angie, she could adapt to any crazy, unbelievable situation. I watched her take a deep breath and suck back the quiet sobs shaking her body. I knew I could count on her to hold it together a little while longer.
Having averted that crisis, I turned my attention back to Tie. His bruised face was wet with sweat, and the bloody stab wound was oozing so badly I couldn’t even imagine how much blood he’d already lost. His eyes met mine and pulled me in. I couldn’t look away, and I didn’t want to. He lifted his hand and weakly grabbed mine. I squeezed it to let him know I was there. He wasn’t alone. His warm smile was the only response he was able to give me.
“Why aren’t we calling an ambulance for him? We need to get him back to the hospital,” Angie urged.
“There’s nothing they can do that Tie and Victor can’t do themselves,” I said, never breaking eye contact with the broken boy in front of me. “He’ll be fine, just give it a minute.”
“I’m not going to sit here and do nothing,” she yelled, reaching into her back pocket to pull out her cell phone.
“Stop!” I batted the phone from her hand, sending it flying to the other side of the room. “You try getting anyone involved right now it will interrupt the process, and Tie will die.”
Tie shook his head and opened his mouth as if to say something, but all that came out was a wheezing noise and then an alarming amount of blood. I looked at the gaping hole in his chest and began to panic, feeling certain Tie should have repaired what he could, and Victor should have been able to heal him by now.
“Victor, why isn’t he healing himself?” I asked.
“He can’t,” he said.
Victor opened his eyes and sat back in defeat.
“Then you do it,” I cried out. My voice was beginning to shake. I was about two seconds away from becoming as unhinged as Angie.
“I can’t do it. I can’t heal him.” He buried his face in his hands.
“Quit telling me what can’t be done, and tell me what can!”
Nothing can be done, okay?” The look he gave me was awful. “There is absolutely nothing that anyone can do. The sword that stabbed him was forged in the land of the dead, and I only have so much power at my disposal. What little power I did have, I used to heal you when we were at the hospital.”
I swallowed down the lump of guilt forming in my throat and let out a trembling breath.
“Even if I hadn’t healed you tonight, I still wouldn’t be able to help him. You can’t heal a stab wound inflicted by that kind of sword,” he whispered. “Tie is going to die.”
I couldn’t accept his assessment of Tie’s condition. The idea that Tie was dying right before my eyes was completely incomprehensible. I watched the barely detectable rise and fall of Tie’s chest and felt my own grow hollow and cold. I didn’t have time to analyze the overwhelming wave of emotions that threatened to swallow me whole. A strange kind of energy buzzed inside of me, building, like it was getting ready to explode. I didn’t know who Tie was, and I didn’t know how we were connected. All I knew for certain was if Tie died, I wouldn’t be able to face tomorrow or the next day or the next.
“Get out of my way,” I commanded.
“Hope, there’s nothing you can do,” Victor said.
“Get out of my way!”
I didn’t wait for him to comply. Moving forward, I pulled Tie’s head onto my lap and held it between my hands. Just before I closed my eyes I looked down into his and felt his steady gaze strengthening me.
My connection with Tie was just as warm and inviting as it had been the first time, but the colors were fading. He was barely receiving any oxygen due to the blood that rapidly filled his lungs. I searched his body, trying to ascertain the extent of the damage and nearly screamed in pain as his life force sent me very fuzzy images of torn flesh, punctured lungs, and a strange sort of blackness surrounding his heart. The images were gruesome to be sure, but I’d healed much worse and failed to understand why Tie’s life force hadn’t started its own healing process the minute the wound was inflicted.
I did my best to communicate with it, but I received nothing in return. I sent instructions, commands, and even began begging, but his life force remained silent, slipping from my mind the same way my mother’s had. I wondered if Tie’s life force was damaged as well. The black mass surrounding his heart seemed to be the source of the problem. I panicked, thinking I was losing him, that his warmth would simply cease to exist and I’d be alone, connected to nothing.
That’s when pure instinct kicked in. I gently pushed his life force into the background and began communicating with his cells directly. I waited for that invisible barrier to stop my progress, but the mental wall I’d been expecting melted into the background, and I was surrounded by thousands of bright lights, tiny intelligences waiting for me to tell them how to proceed.
And so I did.
I walked them through healing process after healing process, starting with cell regeneration, blood production, tissue repair. Veins that had been severed were knit together. Ribs cracked by the force of the blow were bound and strengthened. Intelligences within the blood quickly drained the dark liquid from Tie’s punctured lungs and sent it flowing back to its rightful place within the body. The images swirled through my head with intelligences seeking approval, asking questions, and following every instruction I gave them. Everywhere around me Tie’s body was slowly being put back together. Everywhere except for one area, the most important area.