VIRUS

Chapter 10- Lash Out

Over the past couple weeks Hamada had been teaching me. We hadn't had any assignments in a while, lukely because of what happened at Siji. Rumors were spreading like crazy, and people had lashed out at us numerous times, but the Connectors hadn't done anything about it. We just tried to forget about it, no matter how hard it was.

    After my first training session with Clarissa, Magdalena started hanging around in the empty bedroom next door. She said it was in case of any emergencies. It scared me that she thought anything would go wrong, but I couldn't really blame her for having that fear.

    The last couple weeks Hamada had been teaching me how to defend myself from her attaks. I had gotten fairly good, actually. I had even pushed Hamada down one time when hit her weak point. She touched a bit on how to attack, too- attacking methods, stances, things like that. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when she walked to the end of the room and told me to attack her.

    "Are you sure I'm ready?" I asked carefully. Her green eyes didn't flicker at all. They just continued hiding behind their own personal poker faces.

    "You only learn from experience," she replied, positioning herself so she'd be ready to defend herself. "If you want to go out on the battlefield with battle stances as experience, be my guest, but I highly recommend the real thing."

    Judging from her stance I don't really have a choice, I thought, sighing quietly. I readied myself to attack her, making sure I was standing properly. I made eye contact with her, and I saw something flicker in her eyes.

    "What if I hurt you?" I'm not sure what made me ask it. I just saw something in her that just... Did. She gripped her sword tighter.

    "Then you're ready for battle."

    I charged her, swinging my sword towards hers. I watched her the whole time, from her eyes to her sword to her stance. As I got close I shifted my attention to her sword. I watched and felt the collision of our blades. Hers was shaking. I watched her stance. It had fallen weak. Is she alright? Did I cut her? I watched her eyes.

    They weren't hers.

    "Amelia?" I gripped my sword tighter, fear striking my heart, remembering the last time Amelia was paired with her sword. My vision blurred for a moment. Damn it, don't lose focus! Don't let it hurt you now! I refocused my vision, putting more pressure on my sword. Don't let it kill you! Don't mess up! Don't get hurt!

   Wait...

    Is Amelia crying?

    "I'm not... going... t-to do th-this... a-again..." I watched as tears dripped down her cheeks, pouring in terrified streams from her black and purple eyes.

    "A-Amelia?"

    "I'm not d-doing this again! I'm not doing this again..." her words trailed off into mumbles. I was terrified. Was this really Amelia? That doesn't matter, I thought. I have to focus on that sword...

    "A-Amelia... Calm down... D-don't hurt me..." I put pressure on my sword, pushing her back. Her eyes went wide. I felt a jab to my stomach and a bang to my head. I looked up and saw Amelia looming over me. My sword was still in my hand, but I couldn't move even if I tried. Her tears came down in broken streams. All I heard was my heart pounding on a distorted beat.

    "I'm not doing this again... I won't, I can't" She raised her sword to me, pointing it at my neck. "Clarissa, you-u promised me... Y-you promised me th-this wouldn't hap-ppen again..." She looked at me with malice. Tears dripped down her cheeks.

    "I'm done, Clarissa. You should be, too..."

    "CLARISSA!"

    A blur of black curls went by, and I heard a thud. Suddenly Magdalena and Clarissa were both on the ground, tears still streaming from Hamada's green eyes. Magdalena looked terrified.

    "Clarissa, snap out of it!" she yelled. Hamada's eyes suddenly lit up. She looked at Magdalena, questions in her eyes.

    "Huh? W-what's going on?" She reached up and touched her wet face. "Are those tears?" Magdalena backed up towards me. Hamada slowly met my gaze, and she looked terrified. Her eyes were still wet. In that split second I forgot everything that had just happened, and I just saw a scared girl who needed help. And I wanted to help.

    "What's going on? What happened?" she asked, even though I think we all knew that she already knew what happened. Fresh tears began forming in her eyes when nobody answered her. "Who did I hurt, damn it!"

    My heart broke when she said those words. I wondered how it must feel to have to ask, 'who did I hurt?' instead of 'who is hurt?' or 'what happened?'.

    "You almost killed Brady," Magdalena said finally, scooching back a little more. "I saw you with your sword to his neck." Hamada looked shocked. I don't think she ever thought it would go that far. She sobbed loudly, shaking her head over and over.

    "No, no, it wasn't me! I would never hurt anybody! I would never... I'm not..." She choked out her next words. "I'm not a murderer!"

    The only sound in the room was the sound of Hamada sobbing quietly to herself. Neither Magdalena nor I tried to comfort her.