by Ross Buzzell
“Excuse me, miss. I believe you dropped this.”
The sound of his voice catches her off guard. Her eyes shoot open and nearly take Konner by surprise. They are bright blue, nearly glowing like his own. She lets out a gasp and staggers backwards, nearly falling over. She catches herself and slowly backs away from him, fear gripping her face as she wipes the tears from her eyes, her right finger brushing over a small mole on her upper right cheek under her eye.
“I am not here to hurt you,”
he states, again, softly while he begins to drift towards the buildings ledge. His boots find their footing and he allows his weight to be released into the structure. Konner holds out the phone to the woman. His head tilts to one side. He can recognize her pain. She tries to hide it from him, but the sheer weight of it causes it to spill over like an ocean of sorrow and darkness.
“Who… who are you?”
she asks, her voice quivering with fear at the man who has just flown directly before her. Konner keeps his distance, as he does not want to cause her more stress than she is already under.
“My name is Konner Lorian. I recently was sent to this world because of failings on my own world. I heard your pain, a pain I am all too familiar with. I have come to listen to you because, believe me, this is not the answer.”
Her brow furrows, wrinkling her smooth forehead as her lips part in a speechless confusion. After a few moments of silence, she seems to recognize him.
“I know you. I saw you on the news… they say you killed two people. Why would you want to help me?”
Konner shakes his head; he takes a few steps forward to an air duct vent and gently sets her phone down on top of it before taking a step back once again. Usually, he would be taking in the beauty of the view or embracing the sense of freedom this height would typically bring him, but not now. Now his focus is zoned in one hundred percent on the woman in black clothing with tear-stained cheeks who is at least off the ledge.
“I never killed anyone. I was protecting hostages and the terrorists would not stop shooting at me, even though I begged them to stop. In an attempt to kill the hostages, their own ammunition ricocheted back at them. The other three that were involved were injured, yes, but I left them alive with the proper authorities. I am a soldier, not a killer; I protect the innocent like you. What is your name?”
She laughs and shakes her head. Her demeanor relaxes a little as she reaches for her phone, and Konner gets a glimpse of a dark bruise on her wrist tucked under her long sleeve shirt.
“My name is Kassandra. People call me Kassie. How would you know I am not a monster?”
Her words have a sharpness to them, something that only occurs when someone truly hates themselves and wishes their pain on others.
“It is nice to meet you, Kassie.”
His voice is still calm; he takes a few steps towards her but stops as soon as she notices.
“Because I have seen monsters, Kassie. I have fought them and you are no monster. You are confused, you are hurting, and you are looking for a way to make it that pain stop because you think you are not strong enough to fight it. Let me tell you that you are, and I want to help you.”
Kassie’s jaw tightens as if to show strength. She pulls up her sleeves, showing bruises that climb up her forearms. Some are fresh and black, others are yellowing and showing age, but all look painful.
“You can’t understand fighting against someone who is stronger than you, Konner Lorian; someone who treats you like trash, who shows you just how worthless you are, how much of a waste of life you are!”
Her words cut Konner to the core; this poor woman is wounded deeper than any blade could go. Without a word, Konner places his hand over his lower right abdomen; his hand glows a soft blue light as he retracts his armor, showing off the circular scar on his side.
“I can, Kassie; this was done by my monster, with my own weapon right before he cut down my family before my eyes. I do know your pain. Please let me help you through it.”
The moment she sees his wound, her demeanor changes to one of relief, almost as if she had been searching for someone like her and had been failing until now. Her jaw clenches again. Her face turns red as she fights back tears while struggling with the words for her to choose to convey what is going on in her core. Konner shakes his head as he takes another step towards her.
“Do not fight it, Kassie, searching for words only makes it more painful. Speak from your heart.”
She nods, exhaling her breath unsteadily as she runs her fingers through her hair. The left side falls down, covering half of her face. The right is tucked behind her ear, exposing a cuff piercing at the top of the cartilage of her ear.
“My parents never listened to me, you know. My siblings would wreak havoc on everything and they never got in trouble. Somehow it always found its way to me and I would shoulder the blame… even with evidence, they wouldn’t believe me.”
She nods as she tries to keep herself composed.
“I really hated them for a long time for that.”
Konner inches himself closer, his heart pounding, as he does not want to push her to far too fast.
“How long did that go on for?”
She shakes her head.
“Until I got out of the house, and what kills me is I would bend over backwards for them just to hear them tell me they were proud of me, just once like they did with my brother and sister for every little accomplishment, and they never did! I wasted so much energy chasing their approval, only for them to tell me I was a disappointment.”
Konner’s heart breaks for this girl. He can relate, not nearly to the level, she has but wanting to be something he was not allowed to be and the perpetual frustration he felt at being denied his dreams was hard enough, but at least his parents were proud of him.
“Then when I went off to college, I tried to make friends, but instead, I pissed someone off to the point where they alienated me from everyone I was close to, so badly I had to move off campus and I slept with knives under my pillow for two years because I was so scared for my safety. I tried to report them to the school, the police, and even my parents, who all had the same response: “They are just kids being kids. Ignore them; they will go away.’”
In a fit of frustrated rage, she pulls the collar of her shirt over, revealing the top half of her breast. There is a deep, dark scar dragged across her smooth skin.
“And they did THIS to me when they found out, while they rapped me!”
Tears flow from her eyes freely as Konner feels a rage building within him that he fights to control. For a brief moment, he fantasizes about teleporting them into the heart of the sun but keeps his attention on Kassie.
“But because they had alienated me, no one would believe me. Even my own father asked what I was wearing when it happened as if I had asked for it… can you believe that!”
A silent tear rolls down Konner’s cheek; he shakes his head as he speaks in a broken whisper.
“I am so sorry, Kassie.”
She nods as the frustration continues to pour out of her. She scoffs and shakes her head.
“I dropped out after that…”
The dam has truly broken. She clearly has been bottling this up for years, probably never telling anyone the full story before and now her emotions have taken over and she is in freefall mode.
“I tried to get a job, but the only thing I could find wouldn’t pay the bills, so I had to get a roommate. Any time I would feel overwhelmed, I would call my mother just to get a little comfort and have someone I could vent to. She would only tell me that ‘stress is a part of life and I need to learn how to cope with it.’ And every time we talked, she would just keep bringing it up. My depression spiraled after that and I got involved with my roommate. He seemed nice at the time, but he turned out to be just like that asshole back in college!”
She begins to sob and her legs give out. Konner dashes towards her and wraps his arms around her, falling to his knees as well as she
burrows her face into his breastplate and sobs uncontrollably like he did in his mother’s arms all those years ago. Between the sobs, he can hear her try to apologize.
“I’m… I’m sorry.”
Konner gently strokes her silken hair. His eyes close tightly as they burn with tears for this young woman. The only words of comfort that come to mind are the ones offered to him.
“You have nothing to apologize for, Kassie. You were but a child thrust into a world meant for adults. You deserve this, you’ve earned this, and there is honor in this cry. Do not hold anything back.”
Her hands find the back of his neck as she continues to sob unrelentingly against him, her body convulsing with the tremors of the raw emotion she is finally getting the chance to unleash after almost her entire life. Konner holds her for what feels like hours and does not move. Even when his limbs go to sleep, he stays motionless, holding Kassie in a protective embrace. Gradually, Kassie begins to calm down, her body jumping with minor, uncontrollable contractions of her diaphragm. She slowly releases Konner’s neck and wipes her tears away once again before looking up at him.
“It is nice to finally be able to say all of that. I have never had anyone, not even my therapist, listen like that, without judgment or advice and just let me spill my purse. Why would you come and help a girl as worthless as I am? Clearly, you have better things you could be doing.”
Konner shakes his head as she suggests he could be doing something better, and when she calls herself worthless.
“There is nothing more important on this planet right now than you, Kassie. You are my people and no matter how much you feel like you are, you are never worthless.”
She slowly begins to stand as she regains her composure, giving off an unbelieving chuckle.
“Yeah right. If you would not have come along tonight, I promise you no one would have missed me.”
An idea forms in Konner’s mind; a sly smile tugs on the side of his lips.
“May I take you someplace, Kassie? Someplace far from here?”
She cracks a smile and nods.
“That would be nice.”
Without another word, Konner lifts off the ground, only an inch or two. He presses a few glyphs on his bracer, and gently taking Kassie’s hand, he activates a portal that washes over them. The sirens and sounds of the city are replaced by cool, crisp air, the sound of water washing up on the waves and the sight of a fiery orange sun as it begins to peek over the horizon. Kassie looks around in shock as they find themselves on a beach.
“How did you do that?”
she asks in amazement. Konner nods for her to follow him as he hovers down the beach; she follows closely next to him.
“My people store so much power within ourselves that we can manipulate what is known as quantum tunneling. We can open portals pretty much anywhere we want to.”
A wide smile forms on her lips, revealing bright white teeth that stand out against her olive skin.
“That is so cool!”
she exclaims as she looks around in awe of the island and the white sandy beaches they are on. After a few moments of silence, she speaks up once again.
“You mentioned that I was your people; what did you mean by that?”
Konner nods as he places his hands behind his back.
“My people are peaceful and trusting. A long time ago, we were betrayed and it nearly wiped out our world with a plague. To save our people, we sent the sick to a planet that would stabilize their condition and allow them to interact with the four living beings that inhabited Sol 3… Earth at the time. Earth is an unofficial outpost allowed to grow organically, so yes… You are my people and I would give my life for every last one of you.”
Kassie shakes her head and scoffs.
“That makes me feel even more insignificant.”
Konner floats in front of her and lands. He looks her deep in the eye and shakes his head.
“You are not insignificant, Kassie, and I can prove it to you right now.”
She shakes her head, clearly not believing him.
“How?”
Konner turns her around. The line of her footprints that stretches out far behind them is gradually being washed away by the ocean. As she notices this, her shoulders slump forward in near defeat.
“See, even my footsteps are washed away,”
she adds.
“That is my point, Kassie. Do you know what all is at work just to erase proof that you strolled through the sand?”
Konner speaks inside his mind, asking the computer in his suit a question. The response nearly stuns him.
“Do you know how many gallons of water are in the ocean, Kassie?”
She shakes her head, looking at him like he is a mad man.
“Three point five one nine times ten… to the twentieth power gallons. That is roughly one point three billion cubic kilometers of water. The Earth is about one trillion cubic kilometers in size, and the moon…”
Konner points off near the opposite horizon to the moon clear in the morning sky.
“…is roughly twenty one point nine billion cubic kilometers in size. It is also 385,344 kilometers away from us right now. Do you have any idea the significance of that?”
Kassie is interested. She sniffles a bit as she folds her arms and shakes her head.
“No, what?”
A wave of fascination surges over Konner as his computer relays the data to him, never having calculated this kind of thing before. The sensation is truly inspiring.
“That means that a celestial body that is that large and that far away from us has to pull on a planet that has nearly ninety-nine percent more mass in order to move literally the entire ocean just to wash away your footprints. Kassie, it literally takes a celestial event to undo a mark that you made without a second thought and without trying.”
Konner takes a step next to her and watches as the last of her footprints are washed away by the ocean.
“Imagine the change for good you could have if you were to endure, how much of a positive effect you could make on this universe by staying in it.”
Konner grabs on to a piece of his bracer and gives it a tug. A small disk slides off free from it as he sees a spark of hope ignite in Kassie’s eyes.
“Thank you, Konner. I really needed someone to show me that I am worth a damn.”
Konner holds the disk out to her.
“Take this. If at any point you feel the world weighing down on you, just press the center and I or one of my friends will come to your aid just as quickly as we can. I know something like this cannot be fixed with a pep talk, but we will be here to help you until you do feel right again.”
Kassie takes the disk, and without a moment’s hesitation, she throws her arms around Konner, holding him tight as she whispers in his ear.
“Thank you.”
Konner returns her embrace and pulls a portal over them, once more bringing them in front of the hotel that holds the coffee shop he will be meeting Natalie the next morning. Slowly, Kassie releases him and looks around. A smile forms on her face that is broken but shows hope of mending.
“What are we going to do now?”
Konner gently takes her wrist and rolls down her sleeves, covering her bruises.
“You cannot go back to the place that gave you those. You will stay here.”
Kassie scoffs and shakes her head.
“This is a five-star hotel. I don’t have the money to stay here even one night, let alone long enough for me to figure out my next move.”
“Do not worry about that; I have it figured out.”
With that, Konner moves into the beautiful hotel with the marble entryway and grand open lobby. Its crimson carpets and glistening chandeliers give Konner the sense that everyone who stays here must be royalty. He glances around and sees a desk with women in uniform behind it. Konner approaches the desk. Holding his hands below the desk ledge, he does something risky and opens a tiny portal back to his home world, the royal vau
lts to be exact, and reaches through to grab a piece of gold. He retrieves the precious metal and closes the portal rapidly. This action undoubtedly let every enemy he has know exactly where he is, not that it matters, as his biggest enemy is currently on the way. Konner places the metal on the countertop.
“How long will this pay for my friend here to stay?”
The woman behind the counter looks confused and shocked.