by Andrew Yake
******
Jane disappeared from the grasp of the werewolf and reappeared over a vampire who was dragging Zack’s body. Her blade was out and she came down hard, slicing clean through the neck of the vampire separating his head from his body she disappeared then before her feet touched the ground. She reappeared behind the werewolf who had been dragging her. She pushed her blade through the heart of the beast through his back. She watched as the magic and silver combination on her blade seemed to light the skin on fire. The wolf howled in agony before dropping dead.
Jane turned her gaze to her father. There was a mass of vampires and werewolves between them. She knew this was not his full arsenal and looked for the witch, Changying. She was the one that was the big gun in here, other than her father, of course. She scanned the room and did not see the Chinese receptionist.
“Janneth!” Jane’s father called out to her, but she disappeared again.
Jane reappeared next to Alex and then disappeared again. Jane started to chant and the air became thick. The creatures all started to move toward her, but their movements were slowed. Jane continued to chant over her companions. Alex opened his eyes, followed by Zack, and Allison. Alex took one look around and pulled out his phone. He hit the speed dial and simply yelled, “NOW!”
A small army of vampires in tactical armor repelled in from the roof and unclipped themselves from their lines. Their movements were slowed by the effects of Jane’s spell also. Allison looked up at Jane who was still chanting and started chanting herself. Zack shifted forms and lunged at the nearest foe. Jane had used a great deal of energy doing this and could no longer continue. She stopped chanting and the air went back to normal. Everyone started moving at normal speed, but now their attentions were divided. The battle was chaos.
Jane’s father stood watching from the other side. He started chanting and then looked perplexed as nothing happened. He looked around and his eyes narrowed on Allison. He started to take a step forward and narrowly dodged being slammed into by one of the many fighters in the room.
Jane started fighting again, disappearing and reappearing to the side of and behind any given target. She appeared behind one vampire and had her blade slice through the air severing the head from the body and firing her silver bullets into the nearest werewolf at the same time. She reappeared next to Alex as he was about to be ripped apart by a werewolf that had gotten behind him. She slammed her blade upward through the jaw of the beast and disappeared again.
Zack waded through the crowd of fighters. He swung his short sword like a cleaver. When he was grabbed by a vampire and hoisted overhead, he pulled out his shotgun and fired both barrels into the face of the creature. This did not kill the vampire, but the vampire couldn’t hold onto him any longer. When he was dropped Zack chopped at a downward angle and cleaved the vampires body from the left side of the neck through the right side of his rib cage.
Jane’s father continued walking slowly through the crowd. He could see that his men were being torn apart and had decided to rectify the situation by ending the blockage of his powers. He made it to where Allison stood and laid a hand on her head. Allison screamed and was rocked backward. She hit the ground. Donald smiled as he turned around. He was about to start chanting when Jane appeared before him.
“Test my resolve, shithead!” Jane whispered into his ear while grabbing him by the suit. They disappeared from the room and reappeared outside the window. They were falling at an increasing rate of speed. Jane was on top of her father still holding on.
“I did it all to help you! Can’t you see?” Donald yelled at his daughter as they fell.
“I never wanted your help.” She tried to disappear, but Donald held her arm.
“You needed it. This is my city!” He spoke a word in a foreign language and their decent slowed.
“It’s not yours any more. Now it’s mine.” Rage over her lover’s death filled her face. Jane placed the barrel of the gun under her father’s chin and pulled the trigger.
The world sped up again and Jane disappeared right before the body struck a passing car in an explosion of glass and crunching metal.
******
Matt:
The battle is going swimmingly. I watch from a nearby rooftop as my foe is vanquished, but notice magic occur just before the impact. I know that he was not the one who ultimately paid the price for Jane’s rage, but I will not inspect the damage at this point. I know that the balance will remain. I watch as the fighting continues for a time. I watch as the supernatural creatures, great and small, finish and disperse. The entire show is a myriad of magical lights and displays of power. It is beautiful to behold.
I speak to the universe and time stands still. I make my way over to the other building. The stairs are long and tiresome. I reach the top and enter. I see my friend and teammate bleeding on the floor. He will be fine. I see the head of a vampire paused in mid-air from the clean strike of Zack. I am glad to see that he is still here. I am glad to see that his end is different this time.
I feel a presence of magic rising from behind me. I turn and see Changying. She is not affected by the effects of my time spell. She moves toward me with a beautifully glowing sword. I believe that it is called a Jian, only hers is infused with magics. She lunges for me and I side step her strike. I strike her in the face with my fist as I move out of the way. She turns to lunge at me again and I move to the inside of her strike taking hold of her hand that is holding the sword. I start casting while I am holding her hand. I feel the magic rising inside me as I bend my will over time. I hear her cursing and chanting in Chinese, but it is too late.
I successfully shift time to the point when this building was being built. The change occurs in the blink of an eye as the walls and floor disappear. We stand, precariously, upon the precipice of the topmost I-beam of the unfinished building. The wind is cold and blowing. I look out over the city skyline. If it was not for being in the middle of a fight right now, I would probably have really enjoyed the view. We have appeared on the metal beams of the top floor of this building as it was being built many years ago. It is as I have willed to be.
I shift my position slightly and she loses her balance and slips from the beam. There is nothing to catch her except for the hard surfaces of the other beams on the way down. She grabs hold of my arm and pulls me off with her. I take the sword from her hand and run her through. I chant and feel the impact of an office floor.
I am back in my time, back in the building as I remember it, and I am in pain. I believe Changying is dead, this time. It would not be the first time I have been wrong or the first time I believed that I had killed her. I make my way to the stairs and get back upstairs. I have dropped four flights and I believe that if I had not put on a shield before I started my day this morning I would not have survived the four-story fall. As it is I can feel that I have broken two ribs from the impact.
I walk into the hallway of the top floor. I can taste some blood in my mouth, but I know it is not serious. The fighting is over. I must have overshot the time that I desired to come back to. At least I am close. I see Alex is up now. The group is surrounding Allison. She shows promise as a magic user, but she needs to learn restraint. If I know my enemy, and I do, then he has used her own vice against her. I have seen how she abuses drugs and I am sure that he caused an overdose in her brain chemistry. My foe is a master when it comes to anything that deals with mind manipulation, not to say that he cannot work outside his area of experience. He is just extremely accurate in that one.
I walk up to the group, but I do not say anything. They have not recognized my presence as of yet. It is just as well. I kneel down next to her after casting a spell to stop time once again. I examine her and see that my suspicions were correct. I can see the magics still working against her. She will be dead soon. I decide to push my will upon this and change her fate. This is not my area of expertise, but I push my will hard and I can feel it succeed. I am drained. I am unable to hold time for the mo
ment and I start to fall over.
“What the hell?! MATT!” Alex catches me before I fully hit the ground. His metal arm grabs me under my arm. He means well, but the pressure of metal on broken ribs is not a good combination.
“Ouch, my ribs.” I manage to say in a husky tone. From the look on the faces around me I can see that my appearance must be rather rough.
“What are you doing out of the hospital?” Alex asks. I grin.
“I am there. I am also here.” Alex looks at me as a long-lost friend who has lost his mind. I see pity in his eyes.
I point to the table and then to Jane. “Look.”
Jane raises an eyebrow at me then goes to the desk. The wind is whipping papers around all over the place, but her father’s most recent paperwork is still sitting on the desk. I watch her as she reads over the document. She looks up at me. “What does this mean?”
“It means that you control the empire now.” I say to her and then cough. Some blood comes out when I cough. It is a good effect, but I do hurt in a very real sense. “What will you do with it?” I ask her. I see a gleam in her eye. I watch as she keeps hold of the paper and walks over to her large black furred dog and unchains him. I watch as she scratches behind the dog’s ear and the dog replies to her with the love only a dog can give as he nuzzles her and wags his tail.
Alex helps me to my feet. Allison starts to wake up, but she is in no shape to get to her feet and Zack picks her up in his strong human arms. He is cut several places, but he is healing quickly. I return my gaze to Jane and speak again. “Will you bring balance to this city? This is only the beginning of the struggle.” I look over to Alex who is supporting me and then turn my head so that I face the face of the unknown just outside of my mind’s eye and wink. I am happy and I allow myself to rest for a time. The first streams of daylight break the horizon on a beautiful Friday morning.
Epilogue:
I sit forward as I continue to speak to the doctor. “I know this unknown. I have desperately sought to experience it. I have plied my will to achieve it. I know that I spoke with you earlier. I did promise to tell you of myself, but I ask that you allow me this one moment. It is the dawn of a new day, one that I have not seen yet. It is not an end that I have experienced. I am happy to not know the events that will come now. I feel exhausted and I will tell you more soon. I promise. The balance will be restored, but it will not be easy, or pretty, or fair. The beginning and the end. It is with the devil you know. Time, it is what I have. I can give it as a gift, but now I take some for myself, for it is my time.” I feel exhausted just by considering all that I have told him. He has remained silent for the whole story. I am pleased.
“Matthew,” the psychiatrist begins, “this is very interesting work that you have managed, but I see one flaw in it.” He sits forward at his desk.
“What is it?” I am intrigued.
“You said that your foe was vanquished.” I feel the magics fill the room. The doctor is not the same one I remember. I watch as his magical mask dissolves. I recognize the face of Donald.