Cole Blooded

by Blaise Corvin

  Luckily, Cole had a plan, at least an idea. He pulled Holly close and silently mouthed his plan to her, exaggerating his lip movements. This had been a game they’d played back when they’d been kids. She must have remembered, or Cole’s message was simple enough to understand. She nodded. Suddenly, Ricardo’s stolen knife slammed into Cole’s belly as Ricardo duplicated the attack that had killed Sheriff. Cole’s healing combined with Holly's power kept him conscious and stable, even as the knife twisted.

  "Go!" he screamed, his mouth on Holly’s ear. Then he braced his hands on Ricardo's shadow-wrist, pulling the knife out but holding the limb with both hands. Holly must have understood again because she abruptly turned and ran away. As Cole held on tightly to the shadowy limb, his borrowed ability healing himself, the dark cloud around him shivered.

  What felt like fists came in from every direction. They were painful, but Cole rolled with each strike, minimizing the damage, and tried to predict where else they’d come from. He had trained in mixed martial arts for years, diligently. He was only an amateur fighter, but his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school had encouraged him to train with a blindfold on. Inside the fog, he was at a disadvantage, but as he controlled the knife, Ricardo only hit him with shadow limbs. If he’d tried choking Cole out, he might not have lasted long enough for the plan to work...if it worked.

  Ricardo’s lack of effectiveness was lucky, but Cole had an idea why the killer didn’t seem to be thinking very well. While reaching for the other man’s power, Cole had somehow tapped at least the fringes of the monster’s thoughts. Emotions ran through Cole that weren't his. Some he recognized, like the pure bliss of a fight. It was a primal urge many shared. But then many of the others were feelings so dark, so monstrous, it terrified Cole to know that anyone could feel that way. At the center of all these emotions was a black hole. The vortex was so wide and powerful that Cole was almost swallowed up by it.

  But he remembered his promises, how he had changed in the past few hours. Cole was no longer a college student full of stubborn, rebellious hope. Now he was willing to take action, make decisions. Cole knew himself more completely and clearly than ever before.

  This was certainly a contrast to the black hole inside Ricardo. Cole could feel how the man had spent his entire life uncertain of his purpose. That resentment had grown into darker thoughts. Ricardo was powerful, and had achieved a level of mastery over his power seed that none of the others had, tapping something deep and awful. Cole knew this for a fact now.

  Even so, Ricardo still had no idea who he was. That was why he had become a being of fog after using his power to survive. He’d changed into a force of nature, eager to swallow everyone else up, to lessen the pain of his own uncertainty. It had been working until Cole had connected with him and began copying his power. Cole saw Ricardo's soul, and using the darkness, he gave it shape again, forcefully pushing the black fog back into the vortex it had come from.

  The sensation was like shoving a sleeping bag the size of a house into a sack way too small for it. The strain it caused for Cole was more mental than magical. He barely used any of his life force, maybe only a few days. All at once, the fog was sucked back into Ricardo.

  They’d all slowed during the fight, and the orange ring was almost on top of them. Cole muttered a curse and began jogging backward, on guard and warily watching his enemy. Ricardo looked like a man again. The wounds that Sheriff had given him were all gone, though.

  However, Ricardo’s eyes still weren’t completely lucid again, and his expression was wild, obviously panicked. Then he screamed incoherently. Cole waved a hand to make sure he fully had the man’s attention before yelling, "Now!"

  Holly rushed from behind a tree and pressed a hand to Ricardo's forehead. The man's head began to swell, and he screamed in pain, convulsing. Cole looked on, worried. The dome wall was approaching fast, but they were close to finally bringing the monster down. He was also worried that Holly was going off script. Whatever she was doing with her power, it wasn't what Cole had instructed her to do.

  He had asked her to put Ricardo to sleep, certain she could do this without much effort. The idea had been that with the killer out cold, the dome wall would wash over him and incinerate him while he slept. Instead, boils began to form on various parts of Ricardo's restored skin. One actually burst, erupting with blood. Ricardo dropped his knife, and the blade sunk into the mossy ground to the hilt.

  What truly sickened Cole more than anything was how Holly seemed to enjoy watching whatever it was she was doing. Cole’s lips twisted. This wasn't the girl of his dreams. He saw glimmers, hints of a monster as terrible as the one Cole had just fought.

  Ricardo had held on to his self-preservation instinct. Even as he screamed in pain, obviously unable to move his arms, he still managed to walk away from the approaching ring. However, without Cole touching him anymore, the black fog began seeping out of Ricardo’s skin again like armor. The darkness seemed to reduce his pain, or at least let him act. In two more breaths, his entire body was covered with the darkness again except his eyes. Then he stopped.

  The shadow man's hand whipped out, grabbed the distracted Holly by the neck, and threw her backwards with inhuman strength. Holly didn't even have time to scream as she was swallowed by the dome's burning wall.

  Chapter 14

  “No!" Cole screamed, heart lurching as Holly’s body disappeared behind the orange wall.

  He ran toward the wall, hand held out, emotions overriding his sense but was stopped by a punch in the chest from the shadow man. The force was so great, he imagined that now he knew what it felt like to get kicked by an elephant. Cole was thrown backward, airborne.

  During his split-second connection with the shadow man, Cole could no longer actually feel Ricardo inside the hardened black fog. It had been empty. The sensation felt like death, terrifying.

  After he hit the ground, Cole's breath somehow returned quickly. He rolled to the side just in time to avoid getting crushed. The shadow man's leaping attack had left an impression deep enough in the earth that Cole knew he’d probably just avoided death.

  Fear spiked through him, mixing with his grief. Holly was gone. The shadow man couldn’t be cut. Cole got up and began moving away from the wall, away from the invulnerable monster that had just killed his girlfriend. He needed to get away.

  Cole tripped, his knee scraping a boulder, and the jagged stone tore into his skin. He fell in a roll, screaming, but more of his life energy drained and the wound healed. He looked over his shoulder, hoping that Holly would somehow be there, lending her power, but she wasn’t.

  Stifling frustrated tears, Cole got back up and ran. He borrowed some of his gaming experience, darting between the trees for cover. This decision turned out to be a good idea, because he could hear some of the trees and underbrush behind him being abused as the shadow creature's extending arms crushed them.

  As he fled, Cole allowed himself to briefly grieve for Holly. She was gone, really gone.

  Had their connection been so strong that some of her powers had transferred to him even after her death? He wasn’t sure why he could still heal himself, and he didn’t have much time to think about it. Behind him, the shadow monster belted out an inhuman scream, like fifty metal nails on a chalkboard. The sound filled Cole with such terror, it woke him from his grief.

  He couldn't die here. Nadia, Jarret, Mrs. Satin, and Isla were still ahead waiting for him, relying on him. Kiddy was still out there, too. Cole was probably the only person of his remaining group who had any chance of fighting the competitive gamer. Maybe Nadia would have a chance, but despite her spunky personality, she was way too straightforward and kind to deal with Kiddy.

  Dealing with someone like that meant you had to think in circles, be ruthless. For all her fire, Nadia was a kind person.

  After about ten, maybe twenty minutes of running, Cole's lungs had never felt drier or hotter. He was on the edge of collapse. Luckily, the shadow creature had to be far behind him
now, along with the distant dome. Cole examined his hands, noticing how they were thinner and older-looking. How many years had he burned through? Ten? Twenty?

  The price he paid was steep but he understood his power now. Now that he could finally think about it, experience pointed to the fact that he might be able to keep borrowed powers permanently since he could still heal. He pushed the thought away, knowing that going down that mental and emotional road right now would break him.

  He looked over his shoulder to check whether the shadow creature had followed. Luckily, he didn’t see anything. Maybe he was just being paranoid.

  Suddenly ahead of him, something cracked like thunder. He whipped his head around, noticing three trees topple over. Cole jumped back as one fell uncomfortably near him, then his jaw dropped. Standing there before him was the shadow creature, the thing Ricardo had turned into.

  As he stared at the thing, Cole put some of the last of his waning energy into thinking. Fighting this monster straight-on was pointless. There had to be another way.

  Then he had a realization. Ricardo wasn’t Ricardo anymore.

  Cole had touched the man’s soul before. He knew him better than perhaps anyone else he’d met in his life. This monster standing motionless before him wasn’t Ricardo, not really. Ricardo had given completely into his power, hoping it could fill the emptiness that he’d experienced all his life.

  Feeling awkward and strangely embarrassed, Cole reached out with his senses, hoping his power would understand what he was trying to do. Apparently it did, and he touched Ricardo again, the thing that the killer had turned into. The creature was nothing more than a walking homunculus, acting out on Ricardo's final wishes.

  It was truly empty.

  The man’s power was alive, but Ricardo himself was dead. Now that he knew, Cole didn’t feel any pity for the man, though. This explained why the creature was just standing there. Cole hadn’t done anything yet to trigger a reaction. It must have been in “chase” mode before and now it was waiting for new stimulus.

  Cole had never hated a person in his entire life before Ricardo--he’d been the first. Sheriff, Ray, Holly, Warren, and from what Cole sensed in the killer's soul, countless others had perished from the man’s selfishness.

  It might have been reasonable not to consider the thing in front of him as Ricardo anymore. After all, it was just a husk, power being driven by instinct. The thing couldn't comprehend love or hate. It had been created through Ricardo's fears, hate, and lust for power, though.

  Besides, Cole was not in a forgiving mood. He was tired now beyond belief, and what drove his steps forward to the shadow creature was all of his frustration, anger, bitterness, and grief distilled into pure disdain. In a way, he was grateful that he could unload all of his hate into a single thing.

  He’d thought he might hate Dolos before, remembering how the god had put them in this hell to begin with. But now, Cole only held a sense of respect, a fear for Dolos' indifferent power. The god wasn't malicious, not directly anyway. He’d been impersonal, like an act of nature. Ricardo had made his killing as personal as possible.

  Hating the shadow thing was simple for Cole now, instinct. When he jumped and collided with the thing, he screamed, releasing his power and hatred into the monster the second he touched it. Cole immediately used that connection, feeding on his hatred, mentally wrestling for control of the husk.

  During the battle, he began to forget where he ended and the creature began.

  Being directly connected to the shadowy power was painful, but Cole’s frustration and righteous rage protected him. Finally, before the dome wall could catch up, he had gained full control of the thing.

  He had no time to glory in his victory; he needed to make a choice. Cole could have commanded the shadow to run straight into the ring. Its power was a vile thing, born from a vile man with terrible urges. Nothing about it was good.

  But he wasn’t a simple student, paying his bills with QA anymore. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he was now, but he’d given his word to people better than himself. He needed to protect Isla, a girl too young to deal with what was happening around her. There was also his promise to Sheriff to keep Annie from harm, or keep her from befalling the worst that could happen.

  He also needed to see to Kiddy. Despite what had happened in the past five years, especially the previous three hours, Cole was confident he knew Jin like the back of his hand now more than ever.

  Jin had always played deviously and reserved his greatest effort for the end of a game. At that moment, Jin would be like a demon. Now he had his telekinesis, but Cole could copy his powers if he got close enough.

  No, Cole needed to live, and he couldn’t afford to throw away any power, even if it was...unpleasant.

  With a thought, he condensed the dead Ricardo's ability that Cole controlled now into a shadow creature the size of his hand. He shrank it further, putting huge amounts of force on the thing until it was like an inky-black sphere, a marble the size of his thumb nail, a dark orb. Then he popped it into his mouth and swallowed.

  When it landed in his stomach, it didn't burn like food, or fuel for his powers. Instead, he could feel it spread through every inch of his body like a cloying sickness. The sensation was terrible, but Cole was tough now, and he needed every advantage he could get. He still had promises to keep.

  Chapter 15

  Cole’s razor-sharp focus after absorbing Ricardo’s power began to waver as he jogged through the jungle alone. Before long he was holding off tears again, remembering the good times with Holly. His jog became a stumble, and he picked up a stick to help his footing. When the pain inside hurt particularly bad, he swung at the vegetation.

  It didn’t help.

  He blinked, looking up when he felt orange light from overhead on his face, not being blocked by the jungle canopy. He’d actually found the crest of the island, his destination. The edge of the dome was far in the distance, which was good, but as Cole leaned on his stick and huffed, he verified there was no portal and no sign of his friends. He checked his watch. Somehow, there was still almost half an hour left until the final round ended.

  This fact left him stunned for a few seconds. He gaped at the time, barely believing that so many terrible and frightening things had happened in a single half hour. Hell, he'd burned through at least a decade and a half of his life. The torn clothes he wore were baggy, loose on him now. His power had sucked up all of his fat before eating his future. It seemed it had consumed some of his muscle, too.

  How the hell had he still been moving so fast?

  Cole had never felt more exhausted, tired, or broken in his entire life. He kept silently searching for the others, not wanting to attract attention from Kiddy or any power seed-corrupted monsters that might still be around.

  His mind went to some dark places. Maybe the others had fought Jin and they were all dead. He dismissed that thought nearly as fast as it came to mind. He had to hold on to hope, even a tiny amount, or he felt like he’d fly apart.

  He’d lost everything--Holly, Kiddy, even the peace he had made with himself while facing death before the tsunami hit. He had been put through hell, scraped for every inch on his way to this spot.

  When he’d first arrived on the island, all he wanted to do was find a way to defy Dolos' rules. He’d been certain without any sort of logic or evidence that maybe Dolos would let them all live somehow.

  It hadn’t been a completely illogical belief. After all, why would a god whisk them away from certain death just for all but one to die? Of course, this had been under the assumption that Dolos thought like a human, or valued human lives above the dirt they stood on.

  They were all probably lucky that Ricardo hadn’t had power like Dolos or they would all already be dead.

  Now most of his hope hinged on a half-baked plan. He hoped that he might convince the terrible god to let the others go in exchange for Cole's undying servitude. One hole in this plan was that Dolos was powerful enough that n
othing was stopping him from making Cole a servant anyway. They had no way of knowing whether Dolos would honor his word about anything.

  Sheriff had told Cole that sometimes the only way out of the forest was through it. Cole hadn’t believed him back then, but circumstances had proven the older man correct. Now that he had begun moving again, his legs burning with each step, those words kept running through his mind.

  Cole had to find the others--Nadia, Jarret, Annie, and Isla. He had to hope that they hadn't encountered Kiddy, who had certainly been planning aggressive guerrilla tactics. Kiddy might see this as a game and was playing to win, but Cole wasn’t going to just roll over and let him.

  Sheriff's machete was still in his belt, but didn’t seem all that useful anymore. It might work to euthanize Annie if there was no other option, which was why Sheriff had given it to him, and it might still come to that.

  In the distance, the orange dome was completely opaque now, unlike earlier when it had been mildly translucent. Cole couldn’t see outside the burning dome anymore.

  The dome would be pain, suffering. He shied away from thinking about Holly again. His priority was thinking about the present, and all the people he was still responsible for...if they were still alive. He didn't want to risk his, Annie's, Jarret's, and Nadia's final moments to be screaming in burning orange light, their blood boiled from the inside. At this point, Cole wasn't afraid of death itself, especially after absorbing Ricardo’s darkness, but the kind of pain the dome promised sent shivers up his spine.

  A small, terrified voice at the back of Cole’s mind whispered that he couldn’t find the others, didn’t see a portal because someone had already gone through it, maybe Kiddy, and now they were all trapped. He had to be sure, though. Staying as quiet and stealthy as he could, he moved around the crest of the island, searching for some sign of his friends.