"The fuck Melissa?!" Alex, drenched, cried out, enraged.
"Nah, that's so cute. You got scared!" Melissa laughed and stopped as a slow clap started from behind her.
Turning, they both looked up to see Katelyn looking down on them from three rows up. A little farther down the row was Daniel who smiled and laughed as he conversed with others from the same tier. It was then that Alex realized that he never saw him without his sister. It was as if the siblings were linked by an inseparable bond, where there was one the other would be found.
Unlike Melissa, Katelyn didn’t wear a jacket. Instead, she wore a white, short-sleeved blouse. Pulling out an earphone, Katelyn stood, and with one hand in her pocket and the other on the stair railing, slowly made her way down.
More than a couple students milled about the stadium, some occupying the bleachers and a few showing off on the transparent floor. However, as Katelyn approached Melissa the other students’ attention began to shifted towards the two girls. It was almost as if they were more waiting than hoping to see something happen. Although the first eleven to appear in many generations, it was Melissa’s rumored arrogance and infamy as a dramatic instigator that drew the eyes of her peers.
"Bravo, you've managed to get him to hate you,” Katelyn said, appraising Alex in his dripping uniform.
"Katelyn?" Melissa said.
"The one and only."
"How long have you been up there?" Alex asked, removing the water from his clothes with a manipulation.
"Long enough, but Melissa, you call that teaching? How's the turd supposed to learn anything if all you throw at him is water?" Katelyn hopped off the last step.
"My teaching—"
"Is shit. Now shut up and step aside; I'll show you how it's done." Katelyn's cool gray eyes shifted to Alex. "You, bug. Understand that a weapon can be anything. With that being said, give me your best guess."
"He's not a bug."
"Oh, but he is." Katelyn pulled out her phone. "Now you." Not looking up, she pointed a finger in Alex's direction. "Spit out some random ass ideas. You're wasting time..." She tilted her head up with a glare. "My time."
"I don't know. The wind?"
"Unoriginal. What's your next guess going to be? The stars?" Katelyn slid her phone back in her pocket, and unplugged her headphones. "Think. Use your imagination. I'm not simply talking about the elements."
"A...fork?"
"Lame...but more creative. A weapon can also be a flash-drive, a toothpick, cup, or even a hair clip. Think not of the object but what you want your titus to do with it."
As she held an earbud in each hand a faint glow of electric blue flowed from her hands and onto the cords. Pulling down sharply she split the cord all the way down, past its initial separation. Plastic flattened into the thin curving metal of twin daggers, and the ear-buds turned into cloth-wrapped hilts. "What do you think?" A hint of a smile formed on her lips as she twirled them absently. "Cool, right?"
Alex nodded, awestruck, while Melissa, displaced and sitting on the sidelines of the front row, arms crossed, pouted. "No."
The smile slipped into a more becoming line as Katelyn, tilting her head back cast a glare over a shoulder.
"You want to go...Melissa?"
Shadow, don’t get involved, Melissa thought as she rose. She’s mine.
Her palms opening, the spheres materialized. “Try me,” she taunted.
Taking an unassuming step in Melissa’s direction, Katelyn lunged. Ducking out of the way, Melissa materialized her shield in time to block as Katelyn spun her dagger into the dark mass. Metal grated against metal for a moment as Katelyn, eyes wild, looked for an opening. The yin sphere snaked out and jumping into a backflip, Katelyn evaded the attack with a graze to the throat. A thin line of blood appeared.
Touching it, Katelyn smiled. "Not bad...for a chicken. Why don't you stop hiding behind that shield, huh, Melissa? You rabbit footed pansy."
"And why would I," Melissa said, mentally hurling the wiry metal forth. "—give you an advantage?!"
Darting to the side, Katelyn rushed Melissa from an angle. Bobbing and weaving with the white metal's series of strikes, she executed an aerial over the wire as it rounded about in an effort to trip her. Landing, the wire swinging back, caught Katelyn in the abdomen and sent her flying several yards through the air. Hitting the glass and rolling a few extra feet she skidded to a stop. Above her, the wire descended. She was down to one dagger after losing the other from the blow.
Bruised, battered, biting her lip as she suppressed a groan, Katelyn’s her mind worked like clockwork as she evaluated the situation. Making a run for it would be suicide, a forfeit, for there was no time. Rolling? The risk was too high; the wire was a versatile weapon.
Katelyn, though on her back, raising the blade, teeth gritting, held her ground.
Alex stood in the midst of the cat-fight, entertained yet frantic. "It's like they're trying to kill each other,” he said.
What should I do? he thought. What can I do?
Instinctively, he began to slowly back out of the battle's vicinity, his mind working on adrenaline and self-preservation. Those still hanging around in the stadium began to drift to the bleachers, eager to watch but not get involved.
"I'm rooting for you, Katelyn!" Daniel shouted from among the mix of bystanders.
Melissa recognizing the voice lost her focus as she glanced back. The wire, without a director to see the attack through, wavered with its master and smashed into the glass near Katelyn's head.
"Daniel?" Melissa called, spotting him in the crowd.
Not wasting a second, Katelyn rolled to the side and charged. Cursing as she caught sight of her opponent's escape, Melissa willed the wire to trip Katelyn from behind.
Calling the other dagger to her free hand as she passed it, Katelyn launched her short frame through the air. The wire, falling, passed under her as she caught the top of Melissa's shield with a hand. Pulling herself up the rest of the way with the help of the other, Katelyn looked down triumphantly at the distraught Melissa, whose shield had become a cage.
"What's up, loser?" Katelyn asked with a wicked smile. Shifting her weight to one arm, she raised the other, a dagger in hand. She was about to bring it down, when she halted midway as if alerted by a sixth sense and dropped from the opulent shield. A dagger was knocked out of her hand and went over the shield as the wire soared overhead.
Touching the stadium's base, Katelyn began to roll as the wire's head stabbed at her. Pulling four metal balls out of her back pocket, she morphed them into dual knife.
Melissa, maneuvering the wire up, twisted it down into a relentless spiral of jabs and strikes, slashes, and stabs at Katelyn. Thrown onto the defensive, Katelyn held her ground, and warding off the onslaught with luck and skill alone, she managed to keep up with the wire’s near untraceable speed.
Suddenly the wire pulled back and rose up, then dropped down. It moved to the side in a feint before looping in on itself to come under Katelyn's horizontal guard.
Forced to open up her guard, Katelyn allowed her shoulder to be cut as sacrifice in order to escape back in a sliding side step. It was a transition into what both girls’ knew would be the fight's most defining moments, its final stage.
Katelyn was pushed back one cursing step at a time. She was tiring, her parries grew desperate and movements sluggish. Melissa too was wearing down. However, while she was not afraid of close combat, the battle was taking a toll on her mentally, bringing on periodical headaches.
Fishing up the drudges of her reserved energy, Katelyn fell back on the strength of her iron will, competitive spirit, and insurmountable pride. As Melissa pinned her, Katelyn came up and to the side in a decisive feint. Snaking out her free hand, she grabbed the silver wire.
Crying out as the wiry metal tore flesh and skin, Katelyn, blinking back tears, pulled in and tightening her grip held it fast. Blood trickled from her hand and trailed down the writhing wire, to splatter the glass platform b
elow. Sawing at it with a knife as she passed Alex, her legs shaking and unsteady, Katelyn began to retrace her steps and reclaim several yards of distance standing between her and Melissa.
Sweat trickled into her eyes and Katelyn faltered half a moment to blink it out. She screamed as Melissa, a broad smile on her face, ripped the wire free. Recalling the black shield, Melissa, taking advantage of her opponent's pain, sent the wire forth. Coming back around, it seized Katelyn's weapon arm and wrapped around the limb, rested its razor sharp tip against the base of her elbow, directly above her vein.
"I win,” Melissa said smugly, her chin up and furrowed brows not betraying the near migraine headache she was enduring. “Bow before me, lowly ten.”
The crowd roared its approval and congratulations, pleased to have witnessed a clash of bitchiness so early on. The reaction, however, was premature. Ignoring the warning, Katelyn stubbornly held onto her blade.
Enraged, Melissa's eyes narrowed, and she raised an unnecessary hand to bring about Katelyn's forced defeat.
"St-stop!" Alex yelled and moving on impulse, he yanked on the wire's middle with both hands. The crowd, murmuring angrily, began to boo. "That's enough. Just—"
The wire pierced Katelyn's vein and she screamed. Like the prick of a needle to a finger, the wire had barely broken Katelyn's skin. Melissa's last threads of concentration unraveled and the wire, reflecting this, went limp. Twisting free from the wire, Katelyn pointed her dagger shakily at Melissa, a thin continuous trickle streaming out of her pierced vein. Her stormy eyes were as desperate as a cornered animal's—she was unyielding, defiant.
"That's my sister!" Daniel called out.
"Is that all you've got? Pathetic,” Katelyn taunted, her breaths coming in short gasps.
Her eyes flicked over to Alex. "Get out of the way, worm. You're invading my moment of glory; I'm going to skewer this bitch."
"Last stretch, Katelyn!" Daniel's voice broke out. "Keep it up!"
"Come on guys, give it a break,” Alex pleaded, looking from one to the other. The crowd quieted, straining to hear them.
"Am I too quiet?" Daniel wondered aloud and stood. "She's not responding."
Cupping his mouth with his hands, he shouted. "I'm rooting for you, Sis!"
"Still running that mouth?" Melissa sneered at Katelyn, pulling back the yin wire with starting and stopping difficulty.
"No more than yours,” Katelyn retorted, her grin unnerving.
Alex looked towards the stands. "Daniel, shut up!"
With a yell of frustration, Melissa shot the wire at Katelyn's throat. Braced to deflect the attack, Katelyn's knife was up and ready.
"No! Stop!" Alex shouted and intercepting them both, he staggered into Katelyn, his flailing arms miraculously knocking the dagger from her hands.
As it flew into the air, Melissa registered Alex's stupidity in the nick of time and brought her wire to a screeching halt, its arrow tip poking the base of his throat.
"Alex! I told you to stay out of it! "Katelyn shrieked, rounding on him with a nasty back hand.
The crowd looked on, stunned into silence. Daniel unsurprised, averted his eyes as he sank down in his seat. Alex, the taste knocked out of his mouth, stumbled back a couple of steps but just few enough for Katelyn to get in a kick to his privates. Going down with a gasp of pain on his lips and hands fleeting too late to his lower abdomen. As his knees hit the glass below, Katelyn finished him off with a roundhouse to the face. Spitting on him, she stepped over his unconscious body, and calling her daggers to her, she flipped them back into their original forms.
"Damn bugs," she said, and sticking the headphones in her ears, walked off.
"You coward! Get back here!" Melissa, snapping out of her trance, called after her.
~*~*~*~
A month later, on the frost green grass near the dragon statue, Alex, alongside Melissa, practiced weapon conjuring. Before him sat a multitude of little bowls containing dirt, sand, water, oil, sugar and chalk.
He had been out there in the previous days and this one was no different. Already out for a couple of hours, he continued to search for his affinity, the easiest substance he could meld and conjure. As they wasted the majority of their time talking and bonding, during a break, Alex's thoughts drifted back to the late-November fight.
Interestingly enough, an instructor, the supervisor for the stadium, had been amongst the crowd. With a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other, she'd recorded the events of the fights and had taken notes on both girls. It was, perhaps, one of the leading factors that had gotten Melissa off with three weeks of in-school-suspension while Katelyn received two. Daniel's sister who sustained more physical damage, spent nearly a week in the infirmary resting. Which was opposed to Melissa's mental strain which had her ailing on pain medicine for two.
"Okay, back to it,” Melissa said, setting their bag of snacks aside.
Alex stood and clapping his hands together, called to the sand. A faintly glowing cloudy white flowed to the cupful of minerals which shot up into the air and twisted in on itself in a sand spinner. It was a reaction he'd never expected.
"And there you have it—your affinity,” Melissa said smiling.
Alex was so caught up in the moment that Melissa's voice was all but background noise. Dropping one hand, he shifted full control to his right and drew the overlapping lines of the infinity sign in the air with his pointer finger. The sand, curving with the rhythm and pattern, followed suit.
"Join,” Alex said impulsively, his eyes dropping down to the surrounding bowls.
Cracking, breaking themselves down into pieces and fractions of what they once were, the bowls and the substances in them lifted into the air to mesh with the sand.
"A decomposer,” Melissa said in awe, looking up at him from the grass. "How common." She stood and touched his shoulder.
Concentration shattered, Alex turned and the sand particles, dropped. "Huh?"
Melissa laughed, "Do you even know how to fight, Alex?"
"No,” he admitted, giving the particles a sideways glance. "There was never a reason."
"Well, first and foremost, concentration is key,” she said brushing off her jeans. The evening bell rang, calling them to dinner. "Tomorrow, I'll teach you."
"So I've graduated?"
"You've improved."
Chapter 22
A Whisper from the Past
The alarm went off and his eyes snapped open. Rubbing them, Alex rolled out of bed. Crossing the room, he turned it off with a yawn. Looking up at the calendar above the dresser, he flipped it up from December to January.
What progress am I making? he thought. How much closer am I to going back and getting my money?
He pulled the calendar off its peg and looked at the blinds of the window. His inheritance was waiting for him, he knew, he believed. Waiting, hoping and praying...
Alex dropped the calendar and throwing open the closet door, raided it in a fanatical frenzy. Tossing the books and school supplies out of his backpack, he replaced them with two days’ worth of clothes. There was no time to waste, he had to get out of Corpus, he had to leave. He was lucky it was a Saturday. No class meant time enough to prepare for his escape and journey thereafter.
"Ugh, what have I been doing for the last few months?" Alex said, shoving his backpack under the bed. "I'm coming, money."
The door swung open and Alex jumped. Melissa stood in the doorway. "Training,” she said walking in.
Alex sat up. "Oh, it's you."
"That enthusiasm,” Melissa said sarcastically as she stooped down to pick up the calendar. "I swear Alex, you're always such a grump in the morn—" Tilting her head to the side, she reached under his bed. "What's with your backpack? It looks fatter."
Alex grabbed her hand. "It's nothing,” he said, pushing it further in with a foot.
Melissa shook off his hand, putting her face to the side, level with the floor, and squinted.
"Definitely fatter,” she said
and scooting forward, she reached for it again.
Alex put a foot in her face, blocking her view. "Can you not touch my stuff?"
Melissa recoiled disgusted and sat up, arms crossed. "What are you hiding Alex?"
"Nothing."
"Right..." She said rolling her eyes. “So what is it? A dead animal? Porn mags?"
"What? No!"
"Then what is it? Hmm...?"
"Nothing from your imagination."
"What'cha guys arguing about?" Daniel asked from the doorway, his morning coffee in hand.
"Nothin—"
"Alex is hiding something!" Melissa said quickly.
"Well I'm not about to play the middle guy,” Daniel said closing the door. "Have fun settling stuff; I have better things to do. The TV’s calling me."
What right did Melissa have to know? Alex thought to himself affirming his position. She had nothing to do with his past or him. She didn't truly know him. She was just a girl, one person among many he'd encountered in this dimension. Classmate or not, friend or not, Alex had no confidence, no proof she was real or even existed. He hadn't given up the possibility that this world could be a figment of his imagination, a delusion, a fantasy.
"I mean what's the big deal? You've got some big secret or something? Hiding a giant teddy—"
"Get out."
"What?"
"It has nothing to do with you so just—"
"Like I care." Melissa threw the calendar at him.
Alex caught it, but in his distraction, Melissa skirting around him, seized the backpack and dragged it out. Unzipping it, her face fell as she looked inside.
"Um...what's this?" she asked, pulling out a pair of boxers.
"Giv-give me that,” Alex snapped, red faced, snatching both underwear and bag back.
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