by Choi, Bryan
Pyotor and Fedor weren’t brothers, but they looked enough alike that it was easy to make the mistake. They also shared the same interests, which mainly involved torturing captured mice and voles with live embers from the fires the pair would set in the outskirts of school property. More than once, they’d made me capture the creatures for their amusement. There had been rumors that they’d once abducted a girl from our school and killed her, but no corpse had ever surfaced, and nothing had ever come of the investigation. The only one who ever seemed to command their respect—or perhaps fear—was Feyd. And now, Feyd was right there with them and laughing in my face.
Normally, he possessed an elegantly refined beauty that made most everyone swoon in his presence. Today, his face looked like a rotting tomato. His nose was pushed over to the left, his cheeks were purplish green, and his eyebrows were so swollen that they almost obscured his eyes. A garish laceration on his chin oozed blood down his shirt. This was all Lucatiel’s doing.
“After I kill you, I’m going to rape your sister and then kill her, too,” Feyd said. In his hands was a rifle. To make matters worse, the rifle was a true relic from the days before the Fall: a tool for slaughter.
My eyes widened. Feyd grinned to reveal that his front teeth were missing. He thumbed a lever on the gun, detached the magazine, and flashed it at me. It was stuffed with shiny, brass-cased, copper-jacketed cartridges. Also relics of the old world; they amplified the power of their companion guns to completely destroy targets. We called them “milligrad,” and in less civilized parts of the world, they were currency.
“I’ve more than enough firepower to end you and that ugly blue-eyed bitch ten times over,” Feyd said. He slapped the magazine back into his rifle and charged it.
“Feyd, you bastard,” I said. “If you’re caught with that, you’ll hang. I’ll make sure of it! I don’t care who your father is!”
He jabbed the butt of the rifle into my gut, and I started to retch again. Pyotor and Fedor cackled. “If you beg for mercy and kiss my boots, I’ll shoot you in the face. If not, I’ll blow off your parts one by one, and you’ll die screaming.”
Mother had always told me never to fight, not even if my life depended on it. If I threw away my future and got thrown into the army, it would be the same as death. But up here, what was the alternative? There was no one else to rely on right now. No teachers, no administrators, no gendarmes. And would any of them really care? I was laughably helpless.
The realization made me desperately desire a weapon in my hands. Now I wanted, above all else, to hurt my captors. I gleefully imagined plunging a sword into Feyd’s gut and decapitating the others. At least then I’d take the bastards down with me.
My body warmed, as if I’d been doused in liquid fire. What had felt like steel vises restraining my limbs now felt like flimsy scraps of cloth. I knew I could break away now. Then, I’d kill them all. I felt Fedor and Pyotor tremble with realization. Triumph burgeoned in my throat.
A blur invaded my peripheral vision a moment before Lucatiel’s knee crashed into the side of Feyd’s head. Before he hit the ground, Lucatiel drove her fist into Pyotor’s throat. I felt the cartilage of his larynx collapse on itself before I actually heard the sound. The boy flopped backward with a whiny gasp. Fedor pushed me to the ground, and as I tumbled, I saw him attempt to grapple my sister. She ducked under his clumsy try at a bear hug and caught one of his arms behind him to whirl his body in front of her.
A piercing crack buffeted my senses, and Fedor went limp, gushing crimson from his chest. Now I could see why: Feyd’s gun smoked, and he tugged at the bolt to send a brass cartridge flying off to the side. If he had any regrets over shooting Fedor, I could not say for sure. He aimed and pulled his trigger again. Lucatiel zigzagged out of the way and then sprinted up to Feyd before he could chamber another round.
I stretched out my hands and tried to call to Lucatiel, but she’d already grasped him by the ruff of his shirt. Effortlessly, she spun him around and then threw him against the rusting links of an ancient fence that ringed the rooftop. The barrier disintegrated, and Feyd disappeared from view. I heard a short shriek and then a thud.
I dashed up to where Lucatiel was and peered over the edge. Feyd was face down with his limbs twisted at unnatural angles. Surprisingly, there was no blood splattered around him as I’d expected. I wheeled on Lucatiel. A corona of energy shimmered around her.
“You murdered them! You’re…you’re glowing!” Realization hit me like one of Feyd’s bullets. I’d always assumed I was the only one in my family with the taint. But Lucatiel’s was plain as day to see. Nausea struck me and stung my eyes.
She backhanded me, and I fell to the ground. I wasn’t surprised at that. But what came next rendered me dumbstruck. She was crying.
“Why, Aslatiel? I protected your secret! Haven’t I earned your praise? Why can’t you just be grateful?”
A moment later, the city guard burst on to the rooftop. Lucatiel turned, wiped at her eyes, and put her hands up.