Sleep tugged at her limbs, but Kandice fought the urge, not wanting to dream—she had relived the worst moments of her life every night for the better part of a year. Revenge was her only motivation left, the goal to find and kill the Aether Walker that killed her mother. An impossible task, but a daughter's duty.
Kandice's obsession had become her life's ambition. She skimmed every book and internet page she could find on the paranormal—looking for any explanation of what happened that night—but none of them described what she saw. She kept her grades up during her Senior year to keep her aunt off her back, but every moment not devoted to school was spent researching Aether Walkers in an attempt to hunt down the one who'd started it all.
Blake screamed from the other room. "No!"
He must have died in his game again, Kandice thought.
The clock on her nightstand read 3:50 AM. From within the nightstand drawer she produced a bottle of sleeping pills and washed two of them down with the gallon of water she kept underneath—a habit she'd developed the summer before last, at Taekwondo camp. The pills heightened her dreams, but it was the only way she'd found to shut down at night, and it was better to have nightmares than be too tired to hunt.
Five hours of sleep was the most she could hope for. Enough to recover, but not enough to feel rested.
As she stirred in bed, the pain in her side made her flinch into a ball. She took small, shallow breaths and focused on clenching then releasing each muscle one-by-one, from her toes to her nose. Another trick she'd learned her sophomore year in Taekwondo. Master Monroe insisted each fighter learn to meditate.
Still as a rock, Kandice lay in bed with her eyes closed, waiting for the pain to pass and her pills to kick in. Maybe tonight would be different?
CHAPTER THREE
Saturday, August 20th
A COLD SWEAT CLUNG TO KANDICE'S FOREHEAD and her pulse quickened—she was back in the car with her mother.
For the briefest of moments, she found serenity seeing her mother again.
But it wasn't to last.
Her mother's death-screams filled the car as the Aether Walker's tentacles wrapped firmly around her—talons concealed within each suction cup tore into her flesh. Blood covered the leather seat. With sheer strength of will Kandice ignored the scene of carnage and the look of horror on Blake's face in the back seat, choosing to focus all her efforts toward identifying the Aether Walker, but its face stayed concealed by darkness.
Blood splattered Kandice's face, and by time she wiped it away, the Aether Walker sprinted away with the speed of a deer.
Kandice's cries faded, and bled between the dream and her pillow.
CHAPTER FOUR
Saturday, August 20th
KANDICE WOKE WITH THE MEMORY of her mother's face warming her spirit, but then she recalled the long tentacle soaked in blood, and her mother's vision faded.
The blanket over her head kept out the morning sun—a necessity given the lack of curtains and the way in which the pristine white walls reflected the light. In an attempt to peek at the clock on her desk the sun blinded her, and she dove back under the covers.
"Desk" was an exaggerated term for the narrow table, one of the few pieces of furniture Aunt Jackie allowed to be brought into her house. It held her laptop, next to which sat a pile of books on occult history. When Google searches failed her, Kandice had been forced to seek answers about Aether Walkers in dusty old second-hand books, but even they failed to illuminate her search.
Resigned to the fact that she was wide awake with no hope of falling back asleep, Kandice crawled out of bed determined to drink coffee as soon as possible.
After a complicated battle with her laundry pile—in which she won shorts and a shirt, but it won the socks and underwear—Kandice descended the stairs to the kitchen, only to find her brother was already there. He hadn't gone to sleep yet. She stopped on the outside of the kitchen's bar and leaned over the counter.
"I'm surprised to see you still up," Kandice said.
"I'm just making some iced tea for tomorrow," Blake poured an overflowing cup of sugar into the pitcher.
If by tomorrow he means later tonight, Kandice thought, and fought down the urge to point out.
"I'm going to bed right after this," Blake stirred up the mixture in the pitcher. "What are you doing up so early?"
It was nearly ten, and the AC was already working hard to keep the house cool.
Kandice opened the fridge and stared inside, "I didn't sleep well."
Her stomach grumbled with hunger, but nothing looked appealing. Standing there with the door open contemplating what to eat for breakfast brought back memories of their old house. Their father would often pop into the kitchen just in time to catch her in the act, "Don't stand there with the door open! You're letting all the cold air out!" he would say. It would be worth being yelled at if it meant they could be back there and not at their aunt's. The lengthy contemplation over what to eat for breakfast was futile anyway. She always ended up making eggs, bacon, and hash browns.
Kandice placed a skillet on the stove, "Where's Aunt Jackie?"
"She left earlier," he said. "Seemed pissed. I think she knew you were out, but I didn't say anything to confirm it. Just a heads up."
"Thanks. If she asks, I'll say I was at a boy's house." She flipped her bacon in the pan. "At least then she'll think I'm normal."
Blake laughed. "Sis, I don't think there's anything you can say to make her think you're normal. When are you going to tell me what you're doing out at night?"
She flashed him a smirk. "A girl's gotta have secrets."
"I guess. Well, I'm going to bed." He placed the pitcher of tea in the fridge, "See you tonight."
"See ya."
Blake walked around the corner towards the stairs, then poked his head back out. "By the way, Jackie left a list of chores for you on the fridge."
Kandice sighed.
"I said she was pissed!" The sound of his footsteps faded as he climbed the stairs.
She turned to the right of the stove, and sure enough, a full day's worth of chores awaited her.
Not wanting to deal with it just yet, she filled the electric kettle and scooped four overflowing tablespoons of coffee into the French press. When the kettle dinged, she slowly poured the water with precision—ensuring the grounds bloomed—before filling the press to the line.
After letting it steep for four minutes, she pushed the press down at a snail's pace, and the smell of chocolate and earth filled her nose. Life itself sat condensed in the black elixir before her. Into her travel mug, she mixed the coffee with a little sugar and a splash of cream. Coffee had become a major food group in her diet, and by bedtime the back of her eyes itched.
The coffee needed to sit for a minute to cool off, and while it did, she piled her eggs on a plate next to the bacon, and placed a hash-brown patty atop the eggs. Before eating, she took the single frying pan to the sink and scrubbed it with soap and water, before placing it in the dishwasher along with the spatula. Why the dished needed to be hand washed before going into a dishwasher Kandice didn't understand, but it was one battle she refused to have with her aunt any longer.
With her breakfast ready, Kandice took the chore list from the freezer door to read while eating.
1. Clean your room
2. Clean the living room
3. Go grocery shopping
4. Mow the lawn
5. Take the trash out
Clean my room? Kandice thought. Where does she get the nerve?
Kandice clenched her teeth as she read through the list again, and took a deep breath once she finished. It was ridiculous that Aunt Jackie expected her to do so many chores for the house on top of paying $500 a month in rent. Blake paid the same amount. So, their aunt made a healthy profit off of their trust funds each month, plus the random one-off expenses that arose. She finally understood why Aunt Jackie hadn't visited their parents other than holidays, despite living in the same city. Knowing s
he shared a distaste for Jackie with her mother helped Kandice bear the living situation.
CHAPTER FIVE
Saturday, August 20th
IN THE EARLY AFTERNOON, Kandice put the finishing touches on her room, and placed the vacuum back in the garage. Blake was still asleep, and wouldn't be up for a few more hours, so it was as good a time as any to go grocery shopping.
But first she needed a quick shower. The morning chores had worked up a sweat, and while she didn't care what the public thought of her, the sensation of sweaty clothes against her skin was not pleasant.
After the shower, she slipped on an old shirt and comfortable pair of jeans. Looking in the bedroom mirror she saw her hair was a frizzy mess, but rather than attempt to subdue it, she pulled her hair back into a bun.
When Kandice moved in with Aunt Jackie, she used part of the trust fund to buy a cherry red moped. "Missing school is unacceptable, and this moped means you have no excuses," Aunt Jackie had said. "Responsibilities aren't neglected just because life became a little bumpy." A little bumpy, that's how she'd viewed the death of their parents and the fact that Blake had been forced to live in a hospital. Kandice hated her for it. Any time the subject came up, Jackie always found a way to avoid it. As if talking about their dead parents was impolite.
Shopping didn't take long, and when Kandice returned, Jackie's car sat in the drive. Instead of dealing with her, Kandice quietly put away the groceries before going up stairs to change into her clothes for the evening. They were too different to see eye to eye, so avoidance had become Kandice's best coping method.
A movie would kill a few hours, leaving her enough time to prepare for tonight. Saturdays were always the most active night of the week for Aether Walkers, and Kandice wouldn't miss it for anything. Normally she would go to the gym and train—a hard workout always calmed her when she was mad at Jackie—but her ribs were in no shape for a session. She needed to be cautious tonight. One wrong move, and it could be her that ended up in the hospital this time.
CHAPTER SIX
Saturday, August 20th
6TH STREET PROVED LESS EVENTFUL THAN USUAL. Instead of the street overflowing with drunken debauchery, Kandice found it practically deserted. Most nights, nearly every college student in the city, along with many tourists, would be out drinking together in the bars that lined the street for a mile-long strip—known to Austinites as Dirty 6th.
Kandice crossed I-35—staying on 6th St.—in search of new prey. College bars gave way to country bars, and karaoke. It didn't take long for Kandice to see a spider-woman on the arm of a middle-aged man walk into one of the country bars. She began to get off her moped, but her ribs ached in protest. The man was in no immediate danger, and it wasn't as if the Aether Walker would kill him.
A text from Blake chimed on her phone,
Blake: Where are you? Jackie is pissed. You were supposed to be back hours ago.
Kandice: I'll be back later tonight.
If only she could explain to Blake about the Aether Walkers—or confide in anyone really—but after the accident, Blake couldn't deal well with reality. After their mother's death police and doctors questioned them both. Kandice had been sent home with their father, but Blake was admitted to the hospital.
Trauma they'd said.
The doctors put him under surveillance and he ended up being moved to a psychiatric hospital north of where they lived. He spent the second half of his senior year of high school there, where they helped him cope with the loss. Kandice still resented her father for not helping Blake.
One night when her father was relatively sober, she explained the night her mother died, and how she could see Aether Walkers. He told her to quit lying and continued drinking as if the conversation hadn't happened. That was the only time they ever spoke about her mother's death. She didn't understand what drove him to drink nonstop. She tried to write it off as him loving her mother so much that he refused to go on without her, but that wasn't a justifiable excuse for abandoning her and Blake the way he did.
Kandice turned into the grocery store parking lot, a large HEB surrounded by two highways. Best to call it an early night, and she'd forgotten to buy whole bean coffee when she was out earlier.
A reptilian Aether Walker caught her off guard as it stalked the parking lot in search of a meal. Kandice always avoided them, after fighting one she knew full well there was no way for her to take one on. Unlike spider-women who focused on drunk prey, reptilians preferred their meals to be strong and sober. They also used far more force when feeding. Whomever fell victim to this Aether Walker tonight would likely wake up in the hospital.
Its scales glimmered a deep green, like the color of pine needles, with neon blue spikes around its head, almost like a crown. Kandice kept a close eye on the talons. She witnessed first-hand the way they would tear through flesh, like scissors through paper. Kandice feared it might be the same one she had gotten into a fight with a couple months back. One of its spikes had a chip where she slammed the Reptilians head into the pavement, before racing away on her moped. The cut on her left leg had needed six stitches.
The different species of Aether Walkers stood out, but it was hard to tell two of the same species apart. Kandice used her phone's camera to take photos, because film never showed an Aether Walker's true form. Photos only showed the human appearance that everyone else saw, making a convenient catalog of the Aether Walkers she discovered throughout Austin. The screen showed the same man she remembered from a few months back. She wasn't likely to forget the human face of the Aether Walker that gave her the scar. A little on the short side and well dressed in a collared shirt and tie—if she didn't know better, she would think he was a banker or jewelry salesman.
The Reptilian sauntered between cars, and Kandice lowered her phone to watch as it moved forward with its claws stretched out—akin to a T-Rex, but with longer arms. She had watched him hunt before and imagined he was trying to find a weak target to feed off of before anyone noticed. She kept a safe distance, but remained close enough to intervene once he attacked. It was one thing to avoid them on principle, but there was no chance in hell she would stand by and watch it attack someone else. She pressed the record button on her camera and filmed without looking at the screen.
The Reptilian halted in the middle of a parking row and lowered his arms, ignoring the car headed towards it. He jerked his head up to the sky as if something had caught his attention and his mouth fell open, its large teeth flashed under the street lights. Its head twitched back and forth, so fast it caused streamers—like when a hand is waved in front of someone's face. The car flashed its headlights to tell him to move, and the Reptilian took off at a full sprint, crossing through seven parking lanes before getting into his own truck and peeling out of the parking lot. Kandice caught the tailgate on film as it exited a few lanes away from her. She hoped a partial license plate number would be visible in the photo. Just in case she needed to report him to the police.
Why did it run away?
She never witnessed fleeing behavior before, the rest of the parking lot carried on business as usual. A handful of times Aether Walkers would run away once she confronted them, but never without cause. This felt different.
Then, it came into view. An Aether Walker drove into the parking lot the likes of which she had never seen—a smaller version of Godzilla, but still an impressive height. The upper half of its body looked to be on the roof of the car. Kandice knew some Aether Walkers to have a foot or more in height on their human body, but this giant Reptilian stood more than twice as tall as her. She released a slow exhale from unknowingly holding her breath.
This is impossible!
The car slowed as it passed the front doors of the grocery store, turned left into the parking row Kandice waited in, and stopped in the middle of the row as if it were a special parking spot labeled: RESERVED FOR AETHER WALKERS.
The Aether Walker rolled out of the car—his body seemed to glide through the top of the vehicle a
s if it wasn't there at all. He wasted no time in finding the closest person to him—leading with his massive teeth, prepared to rip into flesh—a woman with her arms full of groceries trying to get into a car. The massive lizard jammed a claw into her chest and lifted her from the ground. The woman didn't scream as the lizard drank the blood that flowed off her body.
Kandice froze.
She didn't take photos, or even scream as the monster crossed the parking lot to do the same to a man getting out of his car. The Aether Walker's claw shot towards the man, and she closed her eyes.
When she opened them, a dark blue SUV sped past her—so fast the wind ruffled Kandice's shirt—directly at the Aether Walker. The SUV crashed into the giant Reptilian with such force it curled the front hood. Sounds of metal crumpling sent chills down her spine, and visions of her mother's death rushed back.
A tall slender man staggered out of the SUV with an arm hanging limp by his side, his shirt ripped open. He walked straight towards the Aether Walker with no sign of pain hindering him. The giant Reptilian stayed standing, despite having been hit by a two-ton SUV.
How the fuck?
Kandice followed the man's gaze. He looked up at the Aether Walker once he reached him, not into the face of the human.
Could he see the giant Reptilian before him?
Her mind raced with the possibilities, and what they would mean for her future.
Had he hit the Aether Walker on purpose?
Was there someone else that recognized the true form as she did? And if so, could he explain?
Kandice's momentarily stunned state was over. If he could see them, she needed to help. She ran with reckless abandon toward the fight.
The man pulled something out of his pants pocket and slapped it to his bare chest where his shirt had ripped. She blinked as the man changed. He was some new breed of Aether Walker she'd not yet encountered, like the giant reptilian. The man's skinny form swelled, and his dark hair shifted to cobalt blue—akin to a tropical ocean.
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