“Reflections.” A lemon yellow haired woman came up behind Tory. “It’s his name and he rejected you. Sorry.”
“Hm?” Tory, dressed in his light gray purple cloaked turned around to see one of his masters standing behind him. “And just how long have you been standing there?”
“You know you should not be here, young Tory.” The island accented woman, Yasire, reached out for his arm. “That is why Reflection denies you so.”
“Well you should not be here either.” He touched the frame that held Recarie inside.
“Others are on their way and we are to operate in the shadows, which you have been doing a great job of by the way. We all really do appreciate a second guardian even if it goes against all of our rules. Sigh. In times that continue to get worse and with there being so few of us left, that a little bending of the rules doesn’t really matter anymore. Although, holding true to our most cherished laws are what keeps us going.” She tugged him towards the door. Dark and ominous clouds gathered around the house.
“I will be back here…” Tory followed his second master out of the room.
“Yes, but not for a while. Leave here, and like the good little child you are, get out of sight.” Yasire left him outside of the ever changing house. “No direct contact with young Recarie or you’ll die by my bare hands.” She shouted cheerfully as she waved goodbye.
Tory waved back to her then as soon as Yasire faded over the horizon, he climbed a nearby tree and waited for the visitors. “If these people Yasire says that are coming so much as look at her the wrong way, I would certainly make my presence known.”
Chapter 9
Deceit
Ian had been wandering the woods in the area around the house Recarie left him in. “Ugh.” Moaned the man who had not eaten in two days. “Wonder how Trey is doing. Sigh.” He looked up at the trees and watched the moonlight twinkle between tree limbs. “How long have I been out here?” Ian looked through bushes for some sort of berry or in the best case, a bird’s nest. “What would Recarie do?” And as if some sort of miracle had taken place, Ian came to a dirt path that led to a quaint housing community. “Yep, this looks about right.”
From the dirt path to the backyards of small town suburbia, Ian eyed the neighborhood. He saw people of super human ability, but no plain humans. Ian crawled onto the patio of one of the houses and, fully aware of his wrong doing, swiped some plain clothes to blend in with the rest of the population. Recarie had turned the innocent man into a rebel, well sort of. Ian still knew it was wrong to take the clothing, but would do what was necessary to pass the town without an incident.
“So what do I do know.” Ian whispered to himself. “Ugh!” He shuddered seeing his reflection in a mirror. In the first time since he was a toddler, Ian was completely and utterly alone.
“Hey!” A rugged voice screamed above the crowd of late night shoppers.
“Oh crud!” He pulled his hat down and crept into the closest alleyway.
“Hey you stop!” It was a soldier. A NSSH soldier!
“No…” It was unmistakable. The uniform was different, but the man was definitely a NSSH foot man.
The soldier passed right by Ian who almost died from a panic attack. After calming himself down, and making sure the soldier had left, Ian made up his mind about the whole situation he had found himself stranded in.
“Okay.” Ian told himself as he exhaled. “Calm down. We’ve got this.” He stepped out of the alley he had crawled into and in front of one of the locals.
“Oh, hey there!” The younger man in his early twenties helped Ian off of the ground. “You need to watch where you’re going. I almost tripped you.”
“Yeah, oow.” Ian faked a head injury. “I was just trying to avoid those NSSH guards running after that boy. They sure do seem to be everywhere these days.”
“Ever since the Farous higher ups gave them permission to stake out in our towns, they have been running after every stray sound.” A woman who had been passing by joined the conversation.
“Oh…” Ian acted like he had already known that. “They still haven’t located the last, what was it, five or six fugitives from that incident last month?”
“And they’re not going to either.” The man who Ian had bumped into began to walk away as one of the guards approached. Following his lead, the woman took that opportunity to take her leave.
“And what’s going on here?” An NSSH soldier laid his hand on Ian’s shoulder from behind him.
Ian’s first thought of running, something better crossed his mind. “I hear you are still looking for those Disten criminals, and I think I know where one is. A girl with waves of mauve hair and legs that you never seem to stop moving.”
Seconds later, he had a full view of the brick wall the soldier had shoved him into. “You lie!”
“He, he. Never.” The guard gripped Ian’s wrists tighter. “I want to meet your commander or whoever is running this mission here.”
The second guard used his walkie to contact the very man who had gotten the NSSH hold in Disten. Temthaw Vene got permission from the Farous government and called for his most experienced teleportation ability enabled human and was at his soldier’s side in only twelve minutes.
“Oh, ho, ho.” Ian pretended to be a light headed local. “They sent me the big man boss himself.”
This attitude did not sit well with Temthaw and in front of the passer byers, shoved Ian into the brick wall again.
“And just who the hell might you be old man?” The soldier who called in the situation fumbled through Ian’s pockets.
“Sir!” The enthusiastic soldier saluted and then handed over Ian’s wallet.
“Cole Raden.” His identification card read. Temthaw gave Ian, or rather he gave ‘Cole’ a good look over. The gray hair and wrinkles that draped his face were the very same as on the I.D.
“I know where that girl is that every one of you NSSH goons are looking for.” The goons comment did not sit well with Temthaw who tossed Ian to the ground.
“Wipe the blood from your foul mouth and lead the way.” Temthaw could feel this man was telling him the truth, as was part of his ability. Much like the ability Tory held.
“Stay where you are or you will be fired upon!” One of the soldiers shouted out at the crowd that had begun to follow Temthaw and his posse.
The crowd dispersed and went about their day. Ian continued to lead them right to Recarie. His thoughts slipped to the tiny girl who held an untamed power and a will to match it. He admired her pride and blushed every time he imagined her smile where her lips barely separated to show only a hint of her sparkling white teeth.
“You see.” Ian sounded twice as old as he actually was. “I was on my weekly walk from my cottage in the woods several miles away from here. The exercise keeps my failing body in shape. Uh, well back to the point of the matter, I was coming out of a tunnel in a nearby mountain and I saw a breath taking beautiful youth much like the one all over the news, walk into that house right over there.” They had approached the house Recarie had disappeared into. “So I followed her in and when she finally went to sleep, as you youngsters have more energy these days, I went into town to alert the officials.”
“Show us!” Temthaw had ‘Cole’ released and followed him into the house.
The inside of the house had changed. It was colder and darker than Ian had remembered. Items of furniture had appeared and only half of the staircase. Someone, or more likely something was messing with them.
“Up there.” Ian pointed to the upper level of the house. “The structure of the house has changed since I left it. Probably the work of that,” he hesitated with the next comment. “That witch, but looks like we can stand on those shelves over there to get to the second floor.” Without another word, the soldiers lifted the elderly man up to the stairs and followed behind him. “These walls are very tricky. Only a gifted eye can see the door that leads to the room she is in.”
“There!” Temthaw h
ad pointed to the correct space in the wall that held Recarie behind it. Ian could only stand there trying to figure out how the man that had probably never been on a field mission in his life, spot her location so effortlessly.
“Wait!” Ian shouted out before the soldiers could cross the barrier. “The room behind here is tricky and I must go first to lead the way.”
Temthaw allowed Ian to go first, but with a guard by his side in case he was planning on tricking them. Taking a deep breath of air, Ian pulled the man with him into a seemingly solid wall. The soldier stood in awe before doubling over and puking on the carpet. It was not only the front room that had changed in appearance, but inside this room as well. Hundreds of mirrors floated in room. They went up, down, and side to side.
“What the heck is this!?” Temthaw grabbed Ian, but he had not noticed being grabbed.
Ian had his eyes fixed on one mirror that, among all the others of various sizes and shapes and sizes, stood dead still. A little girl with mauve hair skipped on an invisible walkway. The liquid in this frame stepped out and started towards the intruders. Several of the soldiers attacked or tried to manipulate the matter, but nothing stopped the creature from going towards their boss.
Half way across the continent, Trey was being chased by a brown haired woman. She was shouting inaudible obscenities.
“I am not sorry!” He shot a beam of flowing flames that looked like rose petals at her.
“Damn you Hunter!” Gillian used her own fired based ability to send a wave of purple flames straight for his head. She ran up the hill after Trey, only to stand at the top alone.
The warm sun covered her back with its rays and the clouds above her seemed so close that if she reached one boney hand up, she could pull them down. “All alone, I am free.” She whispered into the wind.
“Listen to me this time, please!” Trey whispered into her ear from behind her. He so gently lifted a lock of her hair so she could hear what he had to say. “You know there are hundreds of NSSH soldier that search these lands for us.”
“And if I hand you over to them, then I would most certainly be off the hook for any claims that I had any part in that last mission.” She pulled away from the golem.
“Would you really do that to me?” His rock covered hands took hers. “If you had listened to me in the first place, I could have had you half way across the globe a month ago. You would never have had to worry about any of this.”
Gillian allowed Trey to continue to hold her hands. “And if it had not been for you adulterous BFF Ian, none of this would have happened.” She turned her head towards his gaze. Even though she would never admit it when talking about this moment in the future, her stomach churned from the moment he took her hands, in a good way.
“Well most of us cannot choose who we love and I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt, the I…”
With the wind blowing wildly and sending her hair to a hundred different directions, Gillian grabbed Trey’s hands, clutched them in hers, pulled him close to her, and kissed his stone lips. All of her building emotions had crashed and flooded through her veins. Taking the moment like a true professional, Trey slipped his hands along her sides and let them rest on her finely toned hips.
“I love you.” Trey finished his sentence. “Now.” He straightened his back. “Will you allow me to protect you?”
“Hey!” True to her style. Gillian stuck her face in his. “Just because I kissed you doesn’t mean…” This time it was Trey who did the interrupting and kissed his fiery vixen.
“I will never try to change you or even dare ever tell you what to do.” Their foreheads touched. “But some serious stuff is about to go down and when it does, I need you to trust me.” His thick fingers ran through her fine hair.
“You can have this one chance.” She playfully bit his lip. “Don’t disappoint me or there will not me a second chance, get me?”
Trey was almost sure he knew that Gillian would say that, or something along those lines.
Each NSSH soldier that had failed to damage the liquid mirror creature, panicked they looked to their commander who then looked to his boss, Temthaw.
“Well what are you all looking at me for? Kill it!” Temthaw tried to leave the same way he had come, but found that the portal to the hallway had closed. “Son of a!” He scrambled behind several of his guards in hopes it would fall upon them and leave him alone and free to leave that little house of horrors.
What no one in that room knew was that the creature was only after one of them. Ian willing went forward and allowed it to swallow him. Once Ian had been completely enveloped in the liquid, it returned to its mirror frame. In the liquid the soldiers and Temthaw could see the mauve haired girl now joined by the other man on their most wanted list. As they stood in the room they wondered had this man planned this all from the beginning.
In front of him, Recarie danced like she was trying to catch a butterfly. “Re…” He started to ask.
“Hm?” With a smile unlike he had seen before, Recarie stopped moving and acknowledged the visitor. “Oh.” She giggled. “Hello there. I remember now.” Recarie went back to dancing.
“Um, remember what exactly?” He inched closer trying not to fall. Ian was still unsure of how they stood upon nothingness like the black space beneath their feet.
“That’s just it! Come on.” She waved for him to follow her as she had one leg inside one of the mirrors around them. Ian surveyed the mirror and the reflection in it.
“Here goes.” Just like Recarie, he put one leg in and then pulled his entire body through. The surroundings had changed. They were in an empty dining room. “Whoa.”
In only seconds the room filled with transparent items. A table in the middle of the room had balloons attached to the chairs with a cake on the table that was littered with confetti. Next several human like shapes gathered around the table and huddled next to a little girl. This little girl was unmistakingly Recarie. With her mauve bouncy hair and crystal blue eyes, Ian would know that girl anywhere.
All the other people there where black hazy figures and not detailed like Recarie. A banner hanging from the ceiling read ‘Happy sixth!’ The girl at the head of the table looked more like three years older than six. Dating on the birthday cards set up along the table was more than over a couple of decades ago. Ian watched Recarie give it her all to blow out the candles. He was sure she would use up so much breath she would become weightless.
“Hm.” Ian smiled. “Never changed.”
“That’s mom and dad.” Recarie went around pointing out the figures. “Big brother, big sis, and auntie.” She pinched the see through younger version of herself on her big rosy cheeks.
“How do you know that they are your family?” He crossed the room in long strides to be next to her.
“Because.” Twisting a lock of loose hair, she looked over at her companion. “I remember this. We were all there. Everyone had been happy that day. One of only a handful of happy times…”
“How are we seeing this? Are we somehow in one of you past memories?” The figure broke apart and reconfigured themselve’s as he ran his hand through it.
“Well as I have come to see this is that the mirrors go only to places in the here and now. But…” She stroked several of the figures faces affectionately. “The event we are seeing is very much real.”
Ian let her have the moment to herself. She seemed to be feeling a great loss and longing for those around her. Once the scene had disappeared Recarie walked back to the frame that led them there.
“Ready for another. I have a lot of things here that I would like to show you.” Ian could not get a reading off of Recarie. She was almost emotionless, but overjoyed with happiness.
“Sure.” He swallowed the lump in his throat and joined her back on the other side of the mirror.
Out of one mirror and into another. They had seen scenes of Recarie sleeping peacefully as a child, playing in wide open yards, scraping her knees and having he
r mother kiss the wound to make it better, literally. There had been ones where Recarie played with her brother, sister, and aunt. Ian could tell her family cared a great deal about her. In the memories she was never alone and always had either her brother or sister present with her.
Ian stepped into one mirror that showed a night scene. They were out in a field. Dozens of men dressed in NSSH uniforms surrounded the area, trapping a woman sitting in a tree in a force field.
“No…” Ian stood with his mouth gapping over. They were about to relive a moment he was just starting to forget. “Let’s get out of here.”
“…” Recarie did not pay him any attention. With her head down she gritted her teeth and balled her fist. “But… Don’t you want to know what happened?”
“What! I know what happens!” He swung his hand towards his back in a show of anger. “You kill almost everyone here in a murderous blind rage! Do you really want to go through that again?” Ian walked over to the little girl. “Do you?”
Recarie shook her head.
“Then let’s get going before it starts.” He headed for the mirror.
“No. I meant don’t you want to know how I got up in that tree? Or how about why I was not in one of your Zones on a registry?” The wind chilled the rage showing on Ian’s face.
“There are a million reasons. Like you came from another continent.” He wanted to pull her through the mirror.
“Then I would have been detected entering Disten airspace. No. Let me tell you what happened.” Just before the scene around them got to the point where Sean approached her, it changed. The new scene was of three hours earlier. “Over there.” Her voice soft, she pointed to a point in the sky a mile away from where they stood.
A stream of what looked like thousands of diamonds lit up the sky. The trail continued to stretch in their direction. At the head of the diamonds, was Recarie. She was crying in vast amounts, leaving behind a trail.
“What’s wrong?” This was the first time he had seen her crying. Even if she cut her self and was gushing blood, Recarie never cried like what he was seeing now.
Misery Saves the Night Page 19