I was living in fear, now.
There was a murderer on campus. And, more accurately, said murderer wanted me specifically dead, along with everyone else I knew currently. I had no proof he was here, except for those people, and I couldn’t get outside help without sounding like a maniac. It was like a personal hell, especially for me.
I was paranoid, all the damn time, even when I didn’t have someone out to cave my skull in with telekinesis, I heard noises at night, I saw things in shadows, I jumped at squirrels coming anywhere close to me-I hated going outside, my ideal afternoon was sitting in my room and listening to loud music or any other methods to blot out all sound. My roommate had dropped out in the first few weeks, and had never gotten replaced, so I spent most days alone, outside of talking with the others, getting made fun of by Edward, and feeling like I was floundering at any attempts to live a normal life. I had a job at a local convenience store, but they’d been scheduling me less and less. I think it’s because they were running out of money. The store wasn’t doing well, in general, for whatever reason. The area wasn’t that bad off…but what did I know. My grades told me I wasn’t smart at these sort of things. In fact, I was pretty dumb. Or at least, I felt like it some times. I couldn’t tell if the reason I didn’t do well in my classes was because I was just that dumb, or if it was just…laziness, disinterest, or both.
Or maybe Edward was right, and the crazy ran in the family. I dunno what the hell Diane saw in him, but he was infuriating. He made fun of everyone, for whatever we gave up about ourselves that he thought was a weakness, but yet, he was the beloved one. Or at the very least, he was tolerated more then me.
The thought of Edward being right about anything he said about me always ended up lingering in my head. What if he was right, and I was doomed to be a bloated two hundred pound guy because I didn’t exercise? I already was a bit bloated in my stomach, despite being thin when I was younger, and maybe it would get worse. What if I was going to flunk out, with my sub par grades as evidence to back that up? Or, worst off, maybe I was really and truly going crazy?
My mom had headed to a mental hospital when I was four. I barely remember her because of it, but…I was told she got bad, near the end. My dad tried his best, on his own, but apparently he’d…snapped, one day. Hurt someone pretty badly. He’d gone to jail, pleaded insanity, and was going to get out in two years. One of my aunts had taken care off me for my last year of high school, even though she made me pay rent to her even if I wasn’t eighteen yet. I’d probably have a car by now, if I had that money now. But nope. Here I was instead. Paying for my own college with money my dad had being sent to be me and my stupid little convenience store job. Doomed to spiral into insanity like my parents, just like Edward sai-
“You are doing it again.”
The voice stirred me from my thoughts. I’d been laying in bed staring at the ceiling, lights off. Not asleep, because I was slightly less critical of myself when asleep then when I was awake. I turned my head over minutely to face who’d spoken, my shadow, Zephyr. The only reason I was sticking around here, with Enzo on the loose. The only reason I was still at this school.
“Doing wah-” I said, a little off from being snapped out of my stupor.
“Getting in your own head.”
God damn it I loved this…guy? Creature? Thing?
Creature was what I’d settled in, without a clear gender to pin down like some of the others.
I smiled slightly.
“True. Sorry.”
“Do not apologize. Endeavour to be better.”
They spoke matter of faculty, their shadowy form crossing their arms, before one arm appeared lower then the other and set off the look, causing me to laugh a little, swinging my legs over the side of my bed, landing on my feet, running my hands down my pantlegs to make it look like I hadn’t just gotten out of bed, then doing the same to my shirt.
I heard the faint ringing of the distant school bell, the amount of tolls indicating it was noon…lunch time. I had an immense sinking feeling in my heart, the rate of which it was elevating.
“…let’s merge, and head over” I said to Zephyr, taking a deep breath as I pulled on a pair of socks and shoes.
“Are you certain, what if we are seen?”
“We move too fast for that. I don’t want to get jumped by Enzo on the way, and we aren’t using the buddies during the day-” I said, on the cusp of a rant about why that was a bad idea, before shutting my mouth.
“As you wish. Are you ready?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, standing upright, opening the door, walking into the hall, before shutting it, Zephyr behind me. I took a deep breath, and we merged. The feeling of a static shock down my spine invigorating us, as we took a step forward, and activated our one and only power: Speed.
Down the empty stairwell in less then a second, out the bottom door, then taking a ninety degree turn out a second door and onto campus at large. A large crowd of students moving towards the cafeteria, so we took the long way around. Going back around the dorm, and around some of the less used buildings, before heading towards the cafeteria, cutting out of my speed a few feet from the seldom used side entrance. No one had seen us. Confident in the time of seven seconds, we separated, reaching for the door handle and heading inside. Passing through the front and into the dining hall at large, not looking over to our table yet as I gathered my food together carefully and somewhat meticulously, because I was really trying to watch my weight now that it had become a point of mockery for people around me. I wasn’t quite paying attention to my surroundings though, and so when Zephyr said “To your right” I didn’t quite react in time, turning to head to the table only to find myself face to face with a smiling Enzo, Evander lingering right behind him.
I took an instinctive step back, on my guard, heart racing out of my chest.
“Something wrong, Larry?” He said in his annoyingly accented voice, and a friendly tone which made me sick to my stomach.
“…no. Nothings wrong…”
I looked up at Evander for a moment, and regretted it immediately. His ears were now slanted like an elves behind Juno’s mask, and around his neck, a few pairs of shadowy arms lingered, like tendrils feeling out the air. My face must have paled with the realization, or Enzo must have seen me looking, because his smug smile only grew.
“Good, I’d hate to see you get sick. Now come on, the others are waiting.”
He turned, and began to walk towards the table, and I, heart heavy in my chest, followed him, not knowing how to feel.
He’d killed Edward, and taken Arthur. When? How? Fuck!
I hated Edward, with almost ever fiber of my being, but…like David and being annoying, none of the people I knew deserved to die…except for Enzo, and even then, I wasn’t sure. If I didn’t know he could break out of any prison on earth, I’d suggest we send him to jail-I didn’t want anyone to die.
All I felt was regret, sadness, and…every awful feeling I could parse, as I took the agonizingly long journey to the table. In reality it was maybe twenty seconds. It felt like four hours, just watching Enzo sway slightly as he walked in front of me.
But eventually we reached it. I took my normal spot, and looked down, poking at my food, as Enzo sat down, smiling, speaking first. Not everyone had gotten here yet, it was just me, Paul, Rebecca and Cynthia.
“How was everyone’s day?” He asked, somewhat cheerily, to not one persons returned sentiment. Paul let out a grunt, Rebecca flipped him off, and Cynthia shrugged non committedly.
Soon enough, after a moment or two of silence, Diane arrived, crushing my soul yet again. She hadn’t seen the changes to Evander yet, as she just looked around the table with a look of distaste, looking at the seat next to her as she waited for her boyfriend. Andrew was next, then Dawn. Finally, Mark and Kelly, who sat at the figurative head of the table as always.
Silence once more, before Enzo spoke.
“So, I have an announcement.” He said, smiling in his toxic way, before pointing to Evander’s neck. Everyone followed his gaze, and everyone had varied reactions. Diane, however, was the first one to act, her and Iris pointing in tandem.
“You’re dead. Hear me, French Boy? I’m going to fry out your retinas and melt every single part of your body into a fine pas-“
Enzo raised a finger, as if to object and she stopped, glaring daggers and looking like she was moments away from lunging across the table at him and trying to strangle him right here. Only his previous threats were preventing that, probably.
“All in due time, Diane. Who knows, perhaps you’ll kill me and claim all of the shadows I’ve collected. Wouldn’t that be something?” He said with a wistful sort of expression. That somehow made me hate him even more. This really WAS a game to him. He was doing this…for fun? Because he wanted to play around?
Diane seemed to share the sentiment, somehow getting angrier, about to explode, when Mark looked over at Enzo.
“Shut the hell up. You’re already on thin ice in terms of this truce of yours.”
Enzo shrugged, nonchalant.
“I was going to offer to tell you where to find the body, but honestly, don’t think I want to now. I assure you though, it’s quite fitting.”
Furious silence spread around the table, even people like Dawn or Andrew, the normally calm ones, looked livid, or at the very least angry in some capacity, glaring at Enzo, who seemed completely unphased, a fact which somehow only amplified the emotions at the table.
“I mean, he died well enough, I suppose, if not stupidly. Though I suppose not without a bit of merit, he had me on the ropes for a slight moment, for-“
I couldn’t hear him anymore over the roar in my own ears. Every single memory of myself and Edward moving through my head in a cacophony, every taunt and insult, every mockery and jab to my ever growing sides suddenly felt a lot heavier on me. I couldn’t prove him wrong now. So, now, my mind slowly solidified into him being right, whether I liked it or now. I looked down into my lap, taking deep breaths as I slowly sank back into my own head and what laid within. The murderer at this table had killed someone else. Anyone could be next. I could be next. I couldn’t outrun this problem, I couldn’t actually solve it, I’d just be another corpse, another dead person for this group to get angry about, until we were all dead, or until the actual smart and strong people came up with a plan to beat Enzo. Doomed. I was doomed. No thought about it.
I was stirred from my spiral by two things. Zephyr tapping my shoulder, and Enzo standing up from the table, finishing whatever evil tirade he’d just been on, and stepping away to put away his dishes. Mark folded his hands onto the table, and looked between everyone.
“We need to do something. No one else should die.”
Everyone agreed with that, either nodding, or giving some form of vocal agreement.
“Right: We need a plan. I was thinking a trap. We lure him in with one or two of us, while the rest move in from the sides, overwhelm him. It’s not the best plan, but…” He trailed off.
“Not all of our shadows can be used to fight.” Dawn said, her book long gone these last few lunches. She pushed up her glasses slightly, as she looked at Mark.
“I know. Ideally, no one who isn’t geared towards it will have to.” Mark said with a nod towards Dawn.
“Enzo will want a soft-hard target next.” Andrew spoke up, a rarity, but he spoke with intelligence, so most people listened. “He went for David first, because he could heal, and he could potentially keep some of us in play if we might normally not be. Edward…it seems like he came to him. If he’s thinking tactically, which I am assuming he is, he’ll want to go for someone whose problematic later more then now. The heavier hitters, like Orion and Atlas, won’t be ideal targets. If I had to guess? He goes for Cynthia, Dawn, or Diane.”
Thank fuck. I was off the chopping block, or at least I was if I trusted Andrew’s judgement…which I’m pretty sure I did, all considered.
“Why us?” Cynthia said, speaking up again with a measure of annoyance.
“Andromeda’s a wild card, since you haven’t even told us what they do. Which means, if he tortured David or Edward for information before killing them, you and I are the only unknowns. I have no tangible power for him to tangle with, so he’ll probably save me for later. Dawn and Calypso are more of a tertiary threat, more utility based like Arthur was. You can cause problems for him later, because theoretically brute force isn’t the answer. Then Diane, Iris can knock him off his game when put in tandem with others, and can summon backup. That, along with the fact that he’ll think he can goad you.”
That all made sense to me, with more weight being off my shoulders by the second. Not fully unwinding the sheer worry and anxiety this all made me feel, but it relieved it somewhat. Enough that I was more present and not lost in my own head. Everyone else seemed to accept that logic well enough, nodding of heads accompanying the conclusion of Andrew’s thoughts.
“Right. So we use one of those three as bait…if they’re alright with it? I can use Orion, or Kelly can use Artemis, to make sure no one gets hurt?” He said, to Kelly’s nodding, casting his voice out to the group, but more specifically the three that had been called out.
Silence, for a minute or so, before finally, someone spoke.
“Fine. I’ll do it.” Dawn said, with a sigh. “If you can promise me you’ll do everything you can to make sure I don’t get hurt.” She said, locking eyes with Mark, who nodded seriously. “Iris is useful in the fight itself, and Andromeda, as Andrew said, is our wild card. So best to have me in the somewhat useless role, since Calypso won’t do much.”
More sound logic. I was feeling less worried by the moment. I liked having a plan.
“Right, we have the how and what, how about the when?” Mark asked, looking to the ground.
“Tonight.” Paul answered.
“Midnight” Rebecca added on top of it. The two nodded to each other.
Fuck. I had a shift that ended around then. That was fine, though, I was sure. I could move fast.
“Alright, that works. Here’s what I suggest otherwise. We have Dawn walking along in the square, a somewhat easy target, with Paul and Rebecca moving at the periphery as the visible guards. The rest of us take cover around the square, me with Orion ready to save Dawn, Kelly with Artemis ready to engage Evander, Diane ready to blind with Iris to knock him off balance, Larry with Zephyr to land as many hits as we can in a short period of time to keep him off balance, meanwhile Rebecca, Paul, Maeve and Atlas charge in from the sides and move in for a finisher. Cynthia, Andrew, participate or don’t, it’s your call.”
“I’ll try my best, but I have a few othe-”
Cynthia’s words and the rest of the tables began to fade into the background. Back into my head I went. Fuck.
I was going to have to help fight Enzo. I might die. But also, if it succeeded…Enzo would be dead. Everyone would be avenged. No one else would die.
I knew what I had to do, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it.
I was snapped out of my stupor by Zephyr again, and by the sound of the bell ringing from the tower in the distance. Everyone started to get up, me among them, putting away dishes and heading for the exit. I started to walk down the stairs towards a lower exit, when I heard a voice from the top.
“Larry-”
Diane’s voice, I turned, looking awkward as I turned. Diane looked just as so, but with a sadness her expression couldn’t quite shake.
“…I just…wanted to apologize, for Edward. He told me he was going to, a few days ago. For everything he did to you. It was a bad habit…he knew there was no excuse for that shit, but-“
“It’s alright. Not much to be done about it now.” I cut her off, doing my best attempt at a smile. “I’m sorry, about all of this.”
“…it’s not your fault that French bastard is a cold hearted killer. But we’re gonna get him.” She said with confidence, though not enough to piece the melancholic air to it all.
“…speaking of that, could I ask a favor?” I said, hesitant but realizing this would be necessary.
“Yes.” She said with the upmost confidence.
“…I have work till 11:30. Can you come by and make sure I get to the staging ground without uh-getting jumped?” It sounded stupid now, but I’d rather be safe and embarrassed then dead and prideful. Even if my anxiety wouldn’t let this go for weeks.
She smiled a little. “Sure, Larry. You work at the convenience store, right?”
I nodded, and so did she.
“I’ll see you then.” I said, turning and walking out of the bottom doors, seeing Diane wave in my peripheral vision as I did, moving to go about the rest of my day with some measure of worry, but some hope for what’s to come.
The clock at the other end of the store finally turned to eleven thirty. Fuck. That was that, huh? The time flew. The entire shift was quiet, the store hadn’t gotten a customer in an hour and a half, and I’d just been staring at nothing, occasionally exchanging a word or two with Zephyr. Cleaning up a bit, for what little there was. And now, it was over. It was time to fight for my life.
My heartbeat sped up more and more, as I moved to mark my timecard and place it in a box, poking my head into the backroom where my replacement, a boy named Travis, was waiting, in his uniform. I nodded to him “You’re up, have a good night”
“Have a good night” he echoed behind me as I left, changing my shirt briefly in the backroom as he exited, before heading out into the brisk night air at eleven thirty one. I scanned the area, heart sinking more and more as I saw no sign of Diane. Shit. Fuck. That was bad.
“Where is she?” I said aloud, partially to Zephyr and partially to vent my own frustration and worry somewhere.
“Over there, look” Zephyr said, pointing. I followed the pointing to see…multicolored flashes of light. I’d only seen it once, and it was when I’d first met Diane. Iris was fighting. But I didn’t see any sign of the light which accompanied Orion, or the signature sound that accompanied Maeve. Which meant…she was alone. Shit!
“Merge, now” I said to Zephyr, and he complied.
We took a step forward, and burst down the empty street, faster then any car which we could have taken, streaking towards campus and the lights. They stopped, after about five seconds, we were seven seconds from reaching where the fight was, that much I knew.
We were three seconds away when I saw the parked car moving towards me from the left, one which was parked a moment ago. We moved past it, just as it crashed into the one across the way. We skidded to a stop, looking back over…and that’s when I saw him.
Lowering themselves down on what seemed to be a large metal sheet, was Enzo and Evander, fused. Their rifle pointed down, as they lowered their transportation to the ground.
We froze. This was bad. This was very bad.
“Larry, run” I heard Zephyr said, and I took a step back. Evander lowered their rifle towards me.
“Now now, Larry, you can’t outrun me. I have a straight shot all the way down this street.” They said, in that same FUCKING accent. My anger, fear, sadness, and anxiety were all boiling in the pot that was my brain, as we just stood there, listening to the fucking monologue, trying not to freeze up and to think of some kind of plan.
“Yeah, wanna bet?” We said with the least confidence possible. And they knew it.
The rifle stayed leveled straight at me. Ready to fire at a moments notice.
“Where the hell is Diane!” We called out “Did you kill her, like the rest, you piece of shit?”
They chuckled. A horrifying sound, resonating in my head. “No. She’s alive and well-a broken arm, maybe a few ribs. I dodged your little trap, though, and sprung one of my own”
How did he know. “How did you know?” Our thoughts and voice went in tandem, with that.
They tapped their neck. The tendrils. Impossible. Arthur’s range wasn’t that big-
“The benefit of multiple specters. A bigger battery, which I can distribute as I see fit. I scanned the entire campus. Found everyone but you, laying in wait, and Diane heading en route. So I intercepted her, and you came running! My magnum opus, thus far” They said with a laugh.
I went cold. This was bad. Only one thing left to do. Run.
We poised as if to run away, then ran at Evander and Enzo. They squeezed the trigger, twice, and clipped our arm, the pain numbed against the wind of the speed we ran at. We turned a corner-
And the car we ran between caravanned forward, flipping forward onto us.
Fuck. Last mistake.
We were compressed, couldn’t move. Definitely bleeding, We could feel our strength leaving us. Fuck…I reached for Zephyr…and gently shunted him out. His protests yelled in my head.
“…thank you. For everything. But I’m doing this alone.” I murmured, as the car was lifted, my hand, my only good one, already in motion.
Evander looked down at me. The confidence was oozing from them, as they leveled the rifle.
“Any last words you care for?”
A drama queen. Perfect. I shunted the anxiety from my head, it wouldn’t matter in a few seconds, mustering up my best Enzo smug smirk, to enforce the feeling he’d forced on me.
“Yeah, Eight.”
Evander looked curious, as I positioned my leg slightly.
“Zephyr, do it now. Enzo, go fuck yourself.”
I sprung into the air, and we merged one final time, using a burst of speed to dry the blood drawn symbol I’d drawn beneath my body, having interposed Zephyr to prevent it from getting smudged.
With just a slight movement of our legs, the blood went from oozing, to completely dry like paint. I fell through the air in slow motion, looking to Enzo with defiance, as Evander raised the rifle, and squeezed the trigger twice.
Kindling And Miscellany 